J Lauritzen Holding News

Danish shipping and shipbuilding group J.Lauritzen Holding A/S has reached agreement on a management buyout of its Danyard Aalborg shipyard unit. "The sale will not have any result impact in 2000 for J.Lauritzen Holding," an official said. The price corresponded to the unit's book value at end-1999, Lauritzen said, but did not elaborate. Danyard Aalborg's 1999 pre-tax profit of $1.4 million accounted for 5.5 percent of group pre-tax profit, and the unit's turnover of $14.8 million was .5 percent of the consolidated total. At end-1999, Danyard Aalborg's orderbook was $8.4 million, Lauritzen said.

Headed by Axcel, an investor group has formalized an agreement with the Danish company J. Lauritzen Holding to attain Aalborg Industries. Aalborg, which is one of Denmark's large industrial companies specializing in the field of boilers and other heat generating equipment, agreed to allow investors to set up a new holding company with shares to be distributed among the investor group. The investor group also includes LD, FIH, and Aalborg president and CEO Freddy Frandsen, senior vice president and CFO Svend Ole Aagren, and group vice president Jorn Nielsen.

J. Lauritzen bought Cool Carriers AB for $35.4 million from Norwegian shipping group Leif Hoegh & Co. ASA, a step in consolidation of the reefer vessel market. "The acquisition will be financed through a capital injection of 215 million crowns ($25.5 million) from the parent company J. Lauritzen Holding," it said. Reefer vessels are equipped with refrigeration facilities to transport perishable foodstuffs. The takeover of the Swedish-based group, effective January 1, 2001, would create the world's leading specialized reefer vessel operator in a new company to be named Lauritzen Cool AB, it said. "With the establishment of Lauritzen Cool the first step towards the long sought-for consolidation of the global reefer market has now been taken," it said.