V.Group retains growth ambitions in the tanker market and in Asia following its acquisition of Selandia Holdings, its chief executive says.

The world’s largest shipmanager revealed the purchase yesterday four months after negotiations between the two parties began.

Clive Richardson, chief executive of V.Group, told TradeWinds this morning: “We do have a strategic aim to grow our tanker business even further than we have already.”

V.Group now has around 700 ships under full technical management, around 60% of which are tankers.

Richardson explains Selandia’s standing on the Indian sub-continent was a particular draw, given untapped potential of the region in the shipmanagment business and the access to a wider seafarer pool.

While V.Group will now look to digest its latest purchase, further growth in the area is expected.

“We would continue to look for good fits, be that an acquisition, a merger or venture with other operators in the region,” Richardson said.

Offshore progress

This week’s purchase is V.Group’s second of the year after the purchase of Bibby Shipmanagement in March.

Richardson says a lot of effort has gone into the integration of that business and it continues to perform extremely well.

“Now we are at a point where we can start to look at potential other targets in that space,” he said.

Consolidation is an ever-present topic in shipmanagment circles and Richardson says he is not presently seeing an unusually high number of deals coming across the table.

He explains the group has a structured approach to expansion. “ We don’t just haphazardly wander around looking for opportunities,” he joked. 

“There are obviously organizations below the radar but pretty much in the space we operate it’s a known universe and we would naturally continue to build relationships with people in that universe.”

Investor interest

For the past five years V.Group has been owned by Canada’s Omers Private Equity and press reports have speculated on when the investor will look to exit the business.

While Richardson says there is no sales process running at the moment, he does receive a lot of interest from potential investors.

The company has also been touted in the past as an IPO candidate, something that is not presently a strategic aim, he says.

“There are characteristics of V.Group that lend themselves to the IPO market but there is a long way to go before we go down that route,” he said.