Hurtigruten is taking over the Kleven Shipyard in Norway.
“We see a great potential at Kleven,” said the shipowner's chief executive Daniel Skjeldam.
The yard needed fresh capital and has been supplied NOK 600m ($75m) in fresh liquidity in a deal that both owners, customers and banks are behind.
The deal makes jobs safe for the 750 employees at the yard in Ulsteinvik, which has been building ships since 1967.
The Hurtigruten-owned company KVE Holding is taking over 100% of the shares in Kleven Verft, Kleven Maritime Contracting and Kleven Maritime Technology.
The current owners will control the remaining part of the group.
Hurtigruten has two 21,000-gt, 500-passenger explorer ships, called Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen, on order at Kleven plus options for two more ships.
Last September, Kleven announced new investors were pumping in NOK 300m to the yard.
Hurtigruten and its owners, Petter A Stordalen and TDR, were to be "the largest partner" in the newly established company, with a 40% share.
The new group of investors also consisted of shipowner Age Remoy and Magnus Roth’s InYard Invest, shipbuilder Lurssen-Group, and Per Lillebo.
Kleven's owners at that time, John Kleven AS and H-Invest AS, were also putting in new funds.
At that point, the refinancing process was close to being completed, Kleven said.
