Pelagic Partners, a fund manager set up four years ago by Niels Hartmann and Atef Abou Merhi, unveiled yet another acquisition that brings its maritime investments to 26 vessels across six different ship types.
The Cyprus-based company revealed on Wednesday that it has bought a stake in the 10,400-bhp platform supply vessels Cooper Viking and Coey Viking (both built 2021).
TradeWinds has previously reported that these were the last two PSVs in the managed fleet of Christen Sveaas-backed Viking Supply Ships, which sold its 30% participation in them in January, for a net gain of $17m in cash.
The remainder was owned by UK-based Borealis Maritime, which has now apparently picked Pelagic Partner as a co-investor in the ships.
“We are very pleased to be partnering with Borealis Maritime as we expand our offshore energy market exposure,” Pelagic managing director Merhi said.
Including the two PSVs that are already trading under their new names of Aurora Cooper and Aurora Coey, such ships account for nine of the 26 vessels Pelagic has invested in.
Its remaining seven PSVs are held through Norway-based Golden Energy Offshore Services, in which Pelagic is the second-biggest shareholder with a stake of about 24%.
The PSVs apart, Pelagic’s fleet consists of five midsize product tankers, one car carrier, five small LPG carriers, four handysize bulkers and two commissioning service operation vessels.
The offshore segment has been a focus of the company’s attention lately.
“The development of our portfolio in this segment is driven by an acknowledgement that offshore energy investment looks likely to remain steady over the next five to six years, coupled with an extremely low orderbook, which will likely lead to an increase in demand for PSVs,” Merhi said.
The Pelagic Yield Fund also owns more than 5% in Norway’s Hunter Group.
