Damen moves in the big league acquiring majority stake in Daewoo Magnalia Heavy IndustriesDamen moves in the big league acquiring majority stake in Daewoo Magnalia Heavy Industries

Damen Shipyards Group said it had entered into a share purchase agreement with DSME to acquire the Korean shipbuilder’s stake in the Romanian joint venture. The cost of the stake was not revealed, however, earlier this year the yard was reported to have lost $800m since 2012 and have debts of over $1bn.

The 980,000 sq m facility was founded in 1997 and is a joint venture with 2 Mai Mangalia Shipyard. The yard has three drydocks with a total length of 982 m and 1.6 km of berthing space.

“The docks, with a width of between 48 and 60 metres, will provide Damen with capacity to cater for the largest maritime vessels and structures. As such, this move represents a strategic complement to Damen’s current shipyard portfolio,” Damen said.

While Damen has built up its reputation building smaller and specialised vessels DMHI is involved in large scale shipbuilding such as a series of 9,000 teu containerships for CMA CGM.

DMHI joins the largest shipyard in the Damen Group which is also in Romania, in Galati on the banks of the River Danube.

Damen said the Romanian competition authorities had already approved the planned acquisition. “Furthermore, constructive meetings are being held with the Romanian Government in relation to future cooperation in Mangalia and the further development of the Romanian shipbuilding industry,” Damen said.

The acquisition of a majority stake in DMHI sees the continued expansion of Damen which bought over Keppel Verolme yard in the Netherlands from Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine for $27m at the end of June.