BASS has secured ownership of BASS (Hong Kong) Ltd. from former parent-company, Wilhelmsen Maritime Services (WMS).
The BASS management team used additional financing to complete the agreement, which includes the company's controlling interest (34 percent) in Star Information Systems, a maritime software provider based in Norway.
In addition, BASS will continue to provide Barber Ship Management, a unit of WMS, with fleet management software, which accounts for 20 per cent of BASS' annual turnover. The two companies have recently agreed on a four year contract for software and services to support Barber Ship Management in the highly competitive ship-management market.
According to BASS' managing director Per Steinar Upsaker, the management team approached WMS following the company's acquisition of Unitor earlier this year. "WMS' efforts to re-focus their business on core services gave us the opportunity to put an offer together to buy the company," he says. "We have great confidence in BASS' future, and are very pleased they accepted."
Dag Schjerven, President & CEO of WMS says the two companies will continue to work together.
In the past two years, BASS has redeveloped major parts of its product suite on the Microsoft.Net platform.