Lomar Corporation acquires Allocean and its entire fleet

December 1, 2009

Lomar Corporation, a subsidiary of  Libra Group, has today announced the acquisition of the entire fleet of vessels owned by London-based Allocean group. The fleet of 26 modern ships comprises bulk carriers, container ships, liquid petroleum gas (LPG) tankers, platform supply vessels (PSV), anchor handling tug supply vessels (AHTS), a chemical tanker and a products tanker. The acquisition brings Lomar’s total fleet size to 32 owned and managed vessels including three newbuildings currently on order. The purchase of Allocean represents a major re-entry into ship ownership for Lomar following its sale of 67 vessels from 2004-2006.

The US$325 million acquisition involved the purchase of the shares of Allocean Ltd and the Allocean Charters group of companies, both subsidiaries of Allco Finance Group that entered voluntary administration and receivership in November 2008. The majority of the Allocean team will now join London-based Lomar Shipping Ltd who will undertake every aspect of the management of the combined fleet. The Allocean trading name will no longer be used.

Commenting on the acquisition, Adamantios Tomazos, the chief operating officer of Libra Group stated: “Since selling almost our entire fleet in 2004-2006 we have maintained a modest fleet in recent years while building Libra Group into a diversified global conglomerate. Meanwhile, we have been waiting patiently for a shipping acquisition opportunity such as this. We are delighted to be re-entering the market at scale with the Allocean acquisition and look forward to pursuing further opportunities for fleet growth.”

Lomar is now in the process of integrating Allocean’s fleet, team, operations and procedures with its own in order to ensure customers have seamless continuity of service.

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