Norway’s Havyard Leirvik shipyard has been bought by Tersan Shipyard, marking an expansion into northern Europe for the Turkish group.
Eqva, the successor company to the Havyard group, said it sold the shipyard to focus on its plan to become an industrial investment company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
It sold its 100% stake in Havyard Leirvik Holding, including subsidiaries Havyard Leirvik and Havyard Leirvik Eiendom, for NOK 30m ($2.7m) in cash.
The acquisition will ring in a new era for the Norwegian yard, which completed a bankruptcy restructuring in 2020 and changed its name from Havyard Ship Technology the following year.
Since restructuring and delivering its last newbuildings in 2021, Havyard Leirvik — close to Bergen at the mouth of the Sognefjord, Europe’s longest fjord — has focused on ship repair, servicing and modifications.
The sale could see the Norwegian yard building vessels again in the future.
Tersan said the acquisition will increase its production capacity and it hopes to combine expertise from both yards, as well as customer portfolios.
The combination aims to “provide more attractive services for the building of a wider range of high-quality vessels, after-sales services and for general ship maintenance activities”, the Turkish group said.
The deal will be completed by the end of the year, subject to regulatory procedures and approvals.
Ahmet T Paksu, Tersan’s vice chairman, described the deal as a “significant step forward” for his company.
“We have already been collaborating with Havyard Leirvik on project base cases, although such collaboration had been only to some extent, it has always worked well and showed promising signs for a potentially more expanded partnership,” he said.
“By combining our expertise and resources with those of Havyard Leirvik Shipyard, we are confident that we will be able to achieve our long-term goals and strengthen our position in the global shipbuilding industry.”
Tor Leif Mogstad, CEO of Havyard Leirvik, said the yard is looking forward to becoming part of Tersan.
“It is a highly reputable company with a good standing in international shipping and maritime circles, and with a clear ambition to further strengthen its position in northern Europe with Havyard Leirvik as a stepping stone,” he said.
Tersan and the Havila group — the previous owner of Havyard, which became Eqva — have been working together for some time already.
Tersan completed two cruise ferries that had been under construction for Havila Kystruten at Spain’s Astilleros Hijos de J Barreras. The ferries had been left unfinished due to financial problems at the Spanish yard in 2019 and were towed to Turkey for completion.
Tersan has also built two other cruise ferries for Havila Kystruten, which were delivered in 2021 and 2022.
The Turkish yard is currently building two battery-powered ferries for Norway’s biggest ferry owner, Fjord1, which until the end of October was 50% owned by the Saevik family, who control Havila Holdings.
Tersan is also developing a greenfield shipbuilding site in southern Turkey in the free economic zone of Ceyhan.
In June, Tersan won a milestone order for a pair of 16,500-dwt chemical tankers, which will be the biggest such vessels to be built in Turkey for a decade and will be dual-fuelled with methanol.
Eqva owns 100% of Fossberg Kraft, a specialist in developing, constructing and operating small hydropower plants in Norway. It also owns 50% of the 5,000-dwt platform supply vessel Havila Charisma (built 2012).
