| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Shipping |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Oslo and Singapore |
| Area served | Global |
| Employees | 4,000 (2008) |
| Website | www.bwgroup.net |
The BW Group, previously Bergesen Worldwide is an international maritime group that through its subsidiaries operates within the tanker, gas and offshore segments, with a fleet of more than 150 owned, part-owned or controlled vessels. The group has seven business areas: crude tankers, product tankers, chemical tankers, LNG (liquefied natural gas) carriers, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) carriers, offshore floating production vessels (FPSO) and offshore technology (mooring systems for FPSOs and offshore LNG terminals). The company was created as a merger between Bergesen d.y. and World-Wide Shipping. Operations are performed by subsidiaries, with BW Gas and BW Offshore being publicly listed companies. BW Gas delisted in 2009. Main offices are in Oslo and Singapore while the holding company is registered in Bermuda.
The BW Group is one of the world’s leading maritime groups, comprising BW Gas, BW Maritime and BW Offshore. BW Gas was listed in Oslo in October 2005 as a pure gas shipping company with the BW Group retaining a majority share. BW Offshore followed suit by being listed in May 2006. The other assets remain in private ownership. In 2009, BW Gas was privatised. BW Shipping Managers, later renamed BW Maritime, located in Singapore and supported by a network of BW Shipping offices around the world, is the commercial and technical manager of BW’s tanker fleet, and the technical manager of a number of BW’s dry bulk vessels. APL, which produces offshore mooring systems, was acquired by BW Offshore in 2007 and operates as an independent subsidiary in Arendal, Norway. Berge Bulk is engaged in the transportation of coal and iron ore, and these vessels are managed but not owned by companies in the BW Group.
The company employs around 300 people in the BW Gas and BW Offshore businesses in Oslo and 120 people at the BW Maritime office in Singapore. They are supported by a global network of BW Shipping representative and agency offices. Total staff, including seafarers, number over 4,000.
The BW group’s leading position in the maritime industry has been underpinned by the historic achievements of two long-standing shipping businesses: World-Wide Shipping (founded by Sir Yue-Kong Pao) and Bergesen d.y. which was acquired by World-Wide in 2003.
In the late 1970s, two British Hongs were taken over by indigenous Chinese entrepreneurs in what signalled a new era in Hong Kong’s capitalism: Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. by Li Ka-Shing and Kowloon Wharf by Yue-Kong Pao. Y.K. Pao was a native from Ningbo, Zhejiang province who came to Hong Kong in 1949 and acquired an aging ship to establish the Worldwide Shipping Company in 1955. At its peak in 1979 World-Wide was by far the largest shipping company in the world with 204 ships totalling 20,500,000 metric tons deadweight (DWT). In the shipping downturn starting in 1978, World-Wide astutely read the market and aggressively sold tonnage whilst prices were still reasonable, paying off debt and building cash resources. In less than five years the fleet had halved in size and thus World-Wide avoided the crises that were suffered by many of their industry peers.
Pao passed on his interest in World-Wide in 1989 to his eldest daughter, Anna Sohmen-Pao, shortly before his death in 1991. World-Wide was ranked as the sixth largest shipping fleet (number of vessels) in the world in 2004 and has been chaired by Helmut Sohmen, Pao's eldest daughter's husband, since 1986.
Following a period of stakebuilding starting in late 2000 in Bergesen, Norway's largest shipping company and the largest gas carrier operator in the world, the Sohmen family came to an agreement in March 2003 with Morten Bergesen and Petter Sundt, the controlling family shareholders, to buy their interest in Bergesen and mount a full public offering for all outstanding shares. Following completion of this transaction, 2004 saw a reorganisation of the Sohmen family interests with the creation of a new top holding company, Bergesen Worldwide Ltd., registered in Bermuda, which is owned 93% by the Sohmen family and 7% by HSBC. The holding company was subsequently renamed BW Group Limited. In 2005 a further re-organisation took place, accompanied by the re-branding of the business under a single group brand, BW.
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