Struggling Norwegian shipbuilder Kleven Verft has found a buyer — and is welcoming back a familiar face.
The yard filed for bankruptcy restructuring this month under the ownership of Croatia's DIV Group.
But Kleven said in a statement on Tuesday night that compatriot ship recycler Green Yard is buying the Ulsteinvik plant after a deal was reached with its trustee and banks who had pulled the plug on the company in June.
Former chief executive Kjetill Bollestad will return in his old role, after quitting last month in a culture clash with DIV.
The shipyard will be renamed Green Yard Kleven.
New business targeted
Green Yard, based in the Fedafjord, will now focus on moving the company into new business areas.
Kleven bankruptcy trustee Bjorn Age Hamre said in the statement: "We would not have been able to do this without all the employees at Kleven, the banks, creditors, contracting parties and suppliers who have shown patience and given the estate peace of mind to work out solutions."
A general meeting with all staff, who were told last week they were all being sacked, was due to be held on Tuesday.
One Kleven group company, Kleven Maritime Contracting, was sold to the Langset oil and gas contracting group last week, the E24 website reported, securing 225 jobs out of a total of 440.
Recycling to be carried out
Green Yard will recycle ships at Kleven, as well as continuing shipbuilding, but is not ruling out redundancies.
"Kleven is a fantastic shipyard with a very up-and-coming management. It is well located, and we saw a great opportunity to expand our capacity," general manager Hans Jorgen Fedog told local media.
Green Yard is expecting a big increase in demand for sustainable scrapping.
In January Dutch shipowner Samskip agreed to scrap a 35-year-old reefer at Green Yard.
The deal to recycle the 163,200-cbf Samskip Frost (built 1985) represented a key win for the company, which has been touting its lower-impact indoor ship demolition method as shipowners face increasing scrutiny over scrapping practices.
Integration a problem
Kleven has debt of around NOK 300m ($31.2m).
The shipbuilder was forced to file for bankruptcy restructuring after banks pulled its financing and froze accounts in June.
Kleven was bought by Croatian shipbuilder DIV Group in January, from shipowner Hurtigruten.
DIV said it had experienced several obstacles during the integration of Kleven with its Croatian operations, including the Brodosplit yard.
Hurtigruten teamed up with banks to provide NOK 900m in new capital for Kleven in 2017 to secure completion of two expedition cruiseship newbuildings there.
Kleven had been reeling from major financial losses in January, accumulating NOK 1.2bn in debt in the last four years, TradeWinds reported.
