Wilhelmsen has pledged to continue growing its maritime services portfolio despite abandoning its planned $400m takeover of Drew Marine Technical Services.
The two companies have agreed to shelve the transaction after the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Saturday granted a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) motion for an injunction to block the acquisition.
Wilhelmsen agreed to pay Drew Marine a $20m termination fee.
Thomas Wilhelmsen, chief executive of the Norwegian group, disagreed with the views of the US competition authorities.
He saw Drew Marine as an “important strategic investment” which would have led to better services and better prices for its customers.
The FTC argued that the takeover would harm customers and “violate the antitrust laws by significantly reducing competition in an important market for marine water treatment chemicals and services used by global fleets".
Benedicte Teigen Gude, Wilhelmsen senior vice president for HR and communications, was asked by TradeWinds what the company’s next moves would be and whether this would include alternative acquisition plans.
She replied: "I am not going to elaborate on that at this point.
“The only comment we have is that we will continue to be a good partner for our customers and will offer tomorrow’s products and solutions.”
Wilhelmsen aims to continue to grow its portfolio.
Asked whether Wilhelmsen had agreed to make concessions to smooth path of the takeover, Gude responded: "We had discussion all of the way but as you can read from the statement from the FTC…, we were of different views how this market works and we have to accept the judge’s views, even though we disagree with them.”
She said Wilhelmsen also had dialogue with the Singapore authorities which provisionally opposed the Drew Marine takeover.
“They have not reached a conclusion and don’t have to given this weekend’s developments in the sense we abandoned the acquisition,” she said.
The FTC’s complaint alleged that the deal would unite the two top players, resulting in control of 60% of the marine chemicals and water treatment market. It claimed the next largest competitor would control less than 5%.
Wilhelmsen says the $20m termination fee will have a negative, non-recurring effect on the group’s second quarter accounts to be released 9 August.
