Singapore-based feeder container ship company Bengal Tiger Line (BTL) has been sold to HICO Investment Group, a trust owned by the Hartnoll family, owners of larger competitor X-Press Feeders.
The timing of the deal, when the container sector is riding the crest of an unprecedented wave, is believed to have resulted in a cash windfall for private equity group CMIA Capital Partners, which acquired the company from joint owners Transnaval Schiffahrts and Schoeller Holdings in 2018.
Pricing details, though, remain under close wraps.
BTL chief executive Bill Smart stressed to TradeWinds that “by and large” the change of ownership will not lead to any major change of ownership in the company’s management structure or service provisions.
“The BTL brand will continue status quo. It remains an independent common feeder operator with 11 vessels and 16 sectors spanning the Far East to Middle East, with the Indian subcontinent remaining its core market,” he said.
The BTL deal is the second major investment that HICO has revealed this week.
HICO director Chris Hartnoll revealed on Thursday that the trust had acquired a majority shareholding in Caribbean Feeder Service (CFS), with the Perez y Cia. Group continuing to be a key shareholder.
“We will work closely with Perez y Cia. Group to continue building the business,” Hartnoll said.
CFS, with roots tracing back to 1999, operates an extensive feeder container network in the Caribbean. The company has passed through several owners, with the Perez y Cia. Group acquiring it in 2018 from Harren & Partner.
Hartnoll described the investments in BTL and CFS as forming part of HICO Investment Group’s “continued focus on the future of transportation”.
Both companies join HICO’s portfolio of businesses that includes recently acquired Singapore-based offshore operator Britoil Offshore Services, Core Power (UK) and Bawah Reserve.
HICO was founded in 2021 by X-Press Feeders chairman Tim Hartnoll.
Chris Hartnoll described it as “an investor that looks for entrepreneurial investment opportunities within the strategic verticals of transportation, technology and hospitality”.
“We invest directly in growth companies with the aim of actively adding value to grow businesses for future exit,” he said.
Danish container shipping analyst Lars Jensen, commenting on the BTL takeover in a LinkedIn post, said the deal represented further consolidation in the “marketspace of regional carriers”.
“Technically the companies remain stand-alone, but clearly this move shows that consolidation is not a black-and-white matter but contains a significant grey zone in relation to what at best can be called a multi-brand strategy,” he said.
BTL and CFS operate an asset-lite strategy, sourcing all their vessel capacity requirements from the charter market.
Smart has long maintained that the charter model has allowed BTL to adjust its capacity quickly to respond to market demand.
In contrast, as X-Press Feeders has grown from being an Asian regional specialist using only chartered tonnage into a large global player, it has built up a large fleet of around 40 owned container ships, with about 30 more on order.
This fleet is supplemented by many more feeder container ships taken from the charter market.
