Navigare Capital Partners is making its first investment in the offshore wind support segment as well as cashing in on the sale of a neo-panamax container ship.

The Danish investment company has teamed up with Norwegian green energy supplier Norwind Offshore to invest in five purpose-built offshore wind support vessels.

The venture will add a fifth leg to Navigare’s investment operations, which already span containers, bulkers, tankers and the LNG sector.

But the company is reducing part of its boxship exposure with the sale of the 13,800-teu Thalassa Pistis (built 2014), managing partner Henrik Ramskov confirmed.

The vessel has been delivered in recent days to its existing charterer Evergreen Line, in what appears to be a profitable off-market deal.

The vessel was sold in the first quarter of the year for around $111m, according to Braemar ACM Shipbroking.

The move into offshore marks a new direction for the Navigare-managed Maritime Investment Fund II, which will hold a majority stake in the offshore venture.

“The investment in offshore wind support vessel is an important next step in our strategy for net-zero emissions and our commitment to achieving this,” Ramskov said.

The Danish and Norwegian partners will invest in four commissioning service operation vessels to be delivered between 2023 and 2025, as well as one service operation vessel to be delivered this year.

All the vessels are being built at Norwegian shipyard Vard, the offshore shipbuilding subsidiary of Italy’s Fincantieri.

They will have battery-hybrid propulsion, enabling them to optimise fuel consumption.

“We believe that this investment will both support our accelerating efforts to reach net zero and generate an attractive return for our investors,” Ramskov said.

Norwind was founded by the Volstad, Farstad and Kleven families. The Alesund-based operation plans to deploy the additional financial capabilities to develop the company further.

The funding was an “important milestone on our path to become a leading pure-play offshore wind company”, said chief executive Svein Leon Aure.

The offshore move marks a diversification for Navigare, which is owned by Robert Maersk Uggla and four partners.

The Copenhagen company made its move in the boxship sector in late 2017 by acquiring a trio of neo-panamaxes estimated to be worth more than $200m.

It added to that tally in early 2020 with the well-timed acquisition of the Thalassa Pistis from the Lemos family-controlled Enesel, when the vessel was then estimated to be worth $95m. Since then, its value has appreciated to around $168m today, according to VesselsValue.

Navigare owns six neo-panamaxes of between 9,000 teu and 13,400 teu, as well as two smaller wide-beam vessels on charter to Hapag-Lloyd.

Besides container ships, its portfolio of assets comprises nine tankers, two bulkers and one LNG carrier newbuilding.