Norway's Hatteland Group is expanding its presence in shipping, with the company taking a 25% stake in an LNG carrier on order by shipowner Trygve Seglem's Knutsen Group at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.
The diversified company owned by investor Jakob Hatteland is injecting $4.25m into the newbuilding's shipowning entity, Norspan LNG16.
The vessel, with Hull No 8091, is scheduled for delivery in August 2022. Upon delivery, it will begin a seven-year time charter to Shell.
“We are very happy to have got a cooperation with Jakob Hatteland,” Knutsen OAS Shipping finance director Geir Tore Henriksen told Norwegian financial daily Finansavisen.
The move marks the second shipping investment by Hatteland Group in recent weeks.
Last month, TradeWinds reported that Hatteland Group bought 5m shares in Oslo-listed Belships from majority owner Frode Teigen. The purchase gives Hatteland Group a 5.2% stakeholding in Belships.
Knutsen Group, which Seglem controls through TS Shipping Invest, is a leading private shipowner in Norway with ships also in the shuttle tanker and product tanker segments.
His fleet is to a large extent built up with partners.
The Knutsen Group is best known as a leading shuttle tanker owner. Its Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers (KNOT), owned with 50% partner NYK Line, controls 12 shuttle tankers and two storage tankers in the water, plus six shuttle tankers on order. KNOT also has a 27.8% stake in New York-listed KNOT Offshore Partners.
But Seglem is also heavily involved in the LNG business. The Knutsen Group has a fleet of 10 large LNG carriers on the water, with compatriot Jens Ulltveit Moe’s Umoe Gas Carriers holding a 50% stake in four of them. NYK Line also partners Knutsen Group in the LNG shipping sector.
The Hatteland investment follows a move by Klaveness Marine in March to take a 42% stake in another of the four 174,000-cbm LNG newbuildings that Knutsen Group has on order at Hyundai Samho.
Knutsen Group's sistership quartet is fixed to Shell and had a price tag of $188m apiece.
TS Shipping Invest has reported a pre-tax profit of NOK 202m ($19.8m) for 2019, against a NOK 285m profit in the prior year. Operating revenue dropped from NOK 906m to NOK896m.
