Asco Marine, a subsidiary of the Aberdeen-based international oil and gas logistics specialist Asco Group has acquired Seletar Shipping. Seletar, also Aberdeen headquartered, provides ships’ agency and related services to clients in the offshore, freight management and logistics sectors.
Shaun Eardley, managing director of Seletar, will retain a shareholding in the business and will continue in his current role. The deal provides a platform for the international development of Asco’s marine services division.
Chief executive of Asco, Billy Allan, said: “Over the last two years we have been developing our logistics activities in Trinidad, Canada, Norway and Azerbaijan. The next step is to launch our marine capabilities in these markets, and the Seletar deal gives us the scale needed for this.”
Mr Eardley said: “We have built an excellent business over the last 22 years, but it has become clear to us that we need to be part of a larger and more suitable resourced organisation in order to move on to the next stage. I have been impressed by Billy Allan and his ambitious team at Asco and look forward to working with them.” All of Seletar’s 55 employees in Aberdeen and Great Yarmouth are transferring to Asco and there will be no job losses as a result of the deal.
Asco has also entered the Asia Pacific market with the opening of a freight management operation in Singapore. International freight management executive, Neil Johnson, previously with the company’s joint venture partner in Singapore, Mangrove Holdings, has joined Asco to lead the new business. Like Asco’s freight management operations in Aberdeen and Houston, the Singapore arm will specialise in providing project freight services for the energy, infrastructure and related sectors. The new base in Singapore will serve as a platform for the development of other Asco services in South East Asia. OSJ
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