JBR advises De Poli Tankers on financing and acquisition

Sogestran Group acquired majority stake in De Poli Tankers

With the acquisition, the majority stake in De Poli Tankers passes from one family to another: Sogestran is family-owned, and De Poli Tankers has until now been run autonomously by the De Poli family. The Dutch company has eight chemical tankers, while Le Havre-based Sogestran has 20 deep-sea vessels, 160 river barges and a significant inland shipping and trucking division.

As part of the deal, chief executive officer Chiara De Poli and De Poli's existing management team will stay on in their current positions and continue to lead the day-to-day operations.

During the transaction, De Poli was accompanied by consultants from JBR, who advised on corporate finance, M&A deal support and structuring and raising bank financing and equity.

In addition, Crédit Agricole provided financial advice to De Poli Tankers. Meanwhile, on the other side of the negotiating table, Paris-based Gottengreen acted as M&A advisor to Sogestran.

In a second round of deals, De Poli Tankers immediately used the capital raised to complete the acquisition of the European chemical tanker division of US-based Team Tankers International.

With this, it adds seven 8,000 dwt stainless steel tankers to its fleet, as well as the entire European organization, based in Marbella, Spain. Poli Tankers will also perform the commercial management of three chemical tankers owned by Tankers International for a limited period.

Stephens Europe and Socios Financieros acted as M&A advisors to Team Tankers International.

"All parties are convinced that the fleets, geographic trading areas and type of transactions are highly complementary, and therefore will provide valuable synergies and further enhance the level of service to everyone's existing customers," Sogestran and De Poli stated in a joint press release.

The deal is in line with the growing consolidation trend in the chemical tanker sector. Earlier this month, Norwegian competitor Odfjell launched a medium range chemical tanker pool with Navig8, and added seven vessels from Transportation Recovery Fund, bringing the total now to 19 vessels.

Meanwhile, the also Norwegian group Stolt-Nielsen will merge its parcel tanker fleet with the German John T Essberger Group as of Jan. 1, 2021. The new company - E&S Tankers - will operate with 48 vessels ranging in size from 2,800 dwt to 11,300 dwt.

Source: consultancy.co.uk