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“The strategy is to support StormGeo’s continued growth and focus further on the offshore oil & gas, maritime and the renewable industries as well as investments in next generation products and services," said Bjørn Haugland, DNV GL chief sustainability officer and a board member of StormGeo.
This share increase comes as private equity group Reiten and Norwegian television station TV2 sold their majority shares in StormGeo to Scandinavian Private Equity investor EQT Mid Market. As part of that transaction EQT will enter into a partnership with DNV GL (now the second largest shareholder) and with StormGeo management and employee shareholders, who will remain significant minority shareholders.
“We are honoured to welcome EQT as new majority shareholder of StormGeo and at the same time expand our current strategic partnership with DNV GL,” said Erik Langaker, chairman of StormGeo.
“EQT’s strong track record and longstanding experience in taking mid-sized companies to the next level will help us meet future customer demand. The offshore oil & gas and maritime industries are at the cusp of a technological transformation driven by easier access to bandwidth and big data. With our current risk avoidance systems and focus on efficiency, we are very well positioned to benefit from an increased focus on reducing fuel consumption and emission levels and improving onboard safety.”
Jannik Kruse Petersen, partner at EQT Partners, said that StormGeo had “managed to build a strong business on reducing the shipping industry’s carbon footprint and improving health and safety for the personnel onboard oil rigs. We can only expect the global demand for sustainability and risk management services to increase going forward.”
StormGeo recently concluded an agreement to acquire maritime weather and decision support software company Applied Weather Technology (AWT), in January of this year.
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