Anglo Eastern & Univan merge to form ‘ANGLO-EASTERN UNIVAN GROUP’

Univan Ship Management has merged with fellow Hong Kong manager Anglo-Eastern to form ‘Anglo-Eastern Univan Group’.The merged business will be led by Peter Cremers as Executive Chairman, Bjorn Hojgaard as Chief Executive, Marcel Liedts as Chief Operating Officer and Mark Stevenson as Chief Financial Officer,univan said in its press release.

The deal would add around 100 ships to the Anglo-Eastern fleet, putting it close to the top of the global shipmanagement rankings.Describing it as “the largest ever merger of independent, third party ship management companies,” Anglo-Eastern said in press release the merger would create “significant scale advantages”.

Univan Ship Management was started by the late Captain C.A.J. Vanderperre, often referred to as the ‘father of ship management’. Vanderperre had set up Wallem Shipmanagement in the late 1960s as the world’s first dedicated third party manager, before going his own way to found Univan in 1973.When he died at the age of 87 in 2009, his wife decided to continue to run the Univan brand, installing well-known Hong Kong shipping personality Richard Hext at the helm who then poached shipmanagement veteran Bjorn Hojgaard from Singapore’s Thome to take the CEO role.

Started in 1974, the Anglo-Eastern Group was a home grown product and took off as a third party manager soon after a young Belgian executive with a degree in Naval Architecture (Peter Cremers) joined in 1985. Marcel Liedts soon joined Peter on the management team and, under their leadership, the managed fleet steadily grew. The company gained a reputation for first class safety and environmental standards and in 1998 it underwent a management buy-out, followed in 2001 by a merger with Denholm Ship Management, providing a presence in Europe.

The newly merged entity will have:

• 1,700+ shore based staff
• 24,000+ seafarers
• 600 ships under full management
• 100 ships under crew management only