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OSM Thome interview – Growth, size, and crew pool

Photos: OSM/Thome Finn Amund Norbye, Group CEO of OSM Maritime Group, and Olav Nortun, Group CEO of Thome Group
Finn Amund Norbye, Group CEO of OSM Maritime Group, and Olav Nortun, Group CEO of Thome Group
Talking to the chief executives of both Thome Group and OSM Maritime it was clear that size and the ability to grow further with that scale lay behind the announcement of the largest ship manager consolidation in recent years.

In an interview with Finn Amund Norbye, Group CEO of OSM Maritime Group, and Olav Nortun, Group CEO of Thome Group, Seatrade Maritime News was able to delve into what greater scale will bring to the two well-respected brands as a combined entity and get some early stage understanding of how OSM Thome will move forward.

Once the merger has been approved by competition authorities and completed Norbye will be CEO of OSM Thome and Nortun will take on the role of Chief Operating Officer.

Continued growth

OSM’s Norbye explains, “We are basically now as two companies doubling in size, and of course as a combined entity we will continue to grow.”

Identifying where this growth might be, first is moving into shipping segments the combine entity does not already cover. “Venturing into new segments requires special skills. So, for example, that could be to buy [in] different skill sets.”

Thome’s Nortun says he sees an opportunity in shortsea shipping in Europe, a segment neither company is active in at present. He says they believe that the vessels serving this region will quickly become a “green fleet” using alternative fuels with funding from the EU. Alternative fuelled vessels require specialised training for the crew and currently remain a small portion of the global fleet.

A second area of expansion that Norbye sees is in support businesses to the core sectors of technical ship management and crew management. “The marine services side of the business could also very well expand and support areas such as such as digitalisation, such as being able to help our customers with monitoring and reducing their carbon footprint, it needs investment both in people as well as systems.”

Crew pool

This expansion could be achieved through acquiring companies or by bringing in expertise.

When it comes to size and scale Nortun sees an advantage in another area – the crew pool, something that also links with business expansion and have sufficient seafarers trained in the use of alternative fuels. “To really be relevant over time you need to have crew. Crew is the most crucial part of shipping, whether we liked or not, without a crew everything stops,” he says.

Nortun sees the importance of having access to crew of different nationalities and locations, and then providing those seafarers with opportunities and career path including coming ashore to work. He notes how the time to move up the ranks and come ashore. “So, you actually need a robust crew pool to make sure that flow is going…because they will go ashore earlier than in the past.”

With a huge requirement for crew with specialised training to handle alternative fuels, Nortun notes in that in couple of years time all new vessels ordered could be dual-fuel, and he believes you will need size to take on that challenge and reap the benefits.

The combined OSM Thome entity will have a crew pool of 30,000 seafarers.

Underscoring the need for a large pool of crew are events such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and resulting sanctions removed as much as 15% of global crew supply virtually overnight. Norbye comments, “So it's really important to be versatile, to have a wide network with good access.”

Integration – staff and customers

While the top executives clearly see the benefits that will come a larger, merged organisation consolidation of this type is not without its concern both internally for staff, and externally for customers.

Looking at the organisation itself Norbye says it will be preparing for the integration now the merger has been announced and while the two companies continue to operate as separate entities ahead of approval from competition authorities. In terms of overlaps in the organisation the largest are in Manila and Singapore, and to a smaller extent India. “Now we will use our time to see how we can best integrate these two companies,” he says, including in Manila, Singapore and India.

When it comes ship management the required number of technical staff do not change with a merger. “How many vessels per manager, how many per superintendent, those are not going change,” says Nortun.

OSM and Thome key numbers
32,000 Employees
2,000 Onshore employees in 22 countries
30,000 Seafarers
1,000 Ships under management
450

Ships on full technical management

550 Ships on crew management

While there will be issues such as integration of physical offices where both companies are in the same location Nortun does not see this as the key challenge, but rather ensuring that service to customers is not disrupted in anyway. “I think the really important part for us is to make sure that the customers get the best service they can and we don't disrupt anything.”

A concern often heard from a customer perspective, especially for smaller owners, is a loss of personalised service with a very large ship manager.

Norbye says this a very important point to address and that the organisation is one that is large but also acts locally. “I think it's important that in our combined entity, no customer should feel too small. And all customers should feel that they have the right attention.”

Nortun agrees that any change that takes place should not reduce attention to the customer or change the people they work with due to the merger.