Kvaerner announced that it has agreed with Aker RGI Holding to establish a jointly owned shipbuilding management company. Together, the two groups own 12 shipyards in Europe, and one in the USA and Brazil. These yards have a total of some 13,500 employees with combined revenues of $2.2 billion. Kvaerner and RGI have on a number of previous occasions stated the intention to merge their respective shipbuilding operations in the future. The parties have, however, agreed to postpone such negotiations until a better assessment of the financial and operational issues have been concluded, and until such time as the value of the operations can be more precisely determined. that the value of their respective operations will increase through the establishment of a joint management company.