The Danish-based Norden has confirmed today the closure of the Thorco Projects acquisition, a deal which will able the company to service its customers within all non-containerised cargo types in the dry cargo segment, ranging from handysize to capesize, including multipurpose vessels.
No price has been revealed for the acquisition.
The deal has now been approved by the Danish Competition Authorities.
Thorco Projects is a Danish headquartered shipping company established in 2003 as part of Thornico Group and operates a chartered fleet of 30-40 vessels.
It is a specialist parcel operator in the general cargo segment within Handysize and Multipurpose vessels and since early 2021, the company has shifted focus towards an asset light business model, thereby solely operating chartered vessels.
Thorco Projects has in recent years transformed into an asset light business operating a chartered fleet of predominantly Handysize vessels, where Norden is a significant operator.
Jan Rindbo, CEO at Norden said “We are pleased to close the first acquisition in Norden’s 152-year-old history and welcome our new colleagues, who bring in a wealth of highly-skilled competencies and know-how, enabling us to not only expand our portfolio to all non-containerised cargo types, but also harvest the joint commercial synergies to further grow our businesses to the benefit of our customers.”
The listed dry cargo and product tanker firm opens now a new office in Bremen and with this deal will further grow its customer offering, as Thorco Projects operate within specialist general cargo segments such as break bulk, steel and wind energy related cargoes, where multiple cargo parcels from different customers typically are combined into single shipments on Multipurpose and Handysize ships.
From his side Thomas Mikkelsen, Head of Projects & Parcelling at Norden – former CEO of Thorco Projects said “By being part of Norden, we are able to optimise and establish new trading routes, while adding new customer benefits by leveraging Norden’s strong reputation and expertise within decarbonisation, intelligent use of data and risk management.”
