This news is currently the talk of the town at the Monaco Yacht Show. Bremen-based Lürssen Maritime Beteiligungen GmbH is buying the traditional Hamburg shipyard Blohm+Voss from Star Capital Partners - the investment fund had acquired the company from ThyssenKrupp in 2011. Even Blohm+Voss employees only learnt about the takeover, which was completed at the weekend and still has to be approved by the Cartel Office, through newspaper articles at the show. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
"With Blohm+Voss, we are taking over a shipyard that has versatile facilities at a strategically favourable location. We want to utilise these in the future to round off our current range of repair and refit services and offer our customers even better service conditions," explained Peter Lürssen, Managing Partner of Lürssen Maritime Beteiligungen GmbH. Lürssen now has a total of six shipyards with around 2,800 employees. In his statement, Lürßen left open the extent to which the Bremen-based company's new Hamburg site will be used for new yacht construction. This would primarily depend on how the market develops.
However, as Lürssen is very well utilised with new builds in Bremen and Rendsburg - Küsten-Funk reports until at least 2021 - the Hamburg shipyard would certainly be predestined as a third new build location. The latest Blohm-Voss deliveries include the "Graceful", "Palladium" and "Eclipse".
Dr Klaus Borgschulte, Lürssen's Managing Director of Technology and formerly employed by Blohm+Voss himself, added to Peter Lürssen's statement: "Due to the long-standing and trusting cooperation at various working levels - the site is currently involved in the joint production of the F125 frigate class for the German Navy - we are confident that we have a good basis for managing the companies under one roof."
And what does Fred van Beers, CEO of Blohm+Voss, have to say? "With Lürssen, we are gaining a strategic owner with a long-term commitment who wants to develop our company together with us and further expand the services in our core areas," says the Dutchman, who was appointed to the top job by Star Capital around 18 months ago. In the July issue of BOOTE EXCLUSIV, van Beers, who wanted to double Blohm+Voss' turnover by 2020, had sounded very different. When asked whether he sometimes looked enviously towards Bremen and the success of Lürssen, he replied: "I have great respect for Lürssen's achievements, but our company structures are difficult to compare. Blohm+Voss is on the right track and we will secure a good slice of the market in the next few years. We have a professional team with a great deal of expertise and experience; and we have the capacity to build mega yachts over 100 metres long."
And when asked whether Star Capital would still own Blohm+Voss in 2020, he replied: "Shipbuilding requires a long-term commitment, and our owner knows that. Star Capital Partners is pursuing the goal of maintaining and further developing the shipyard."
