The partners of DESMI Ocean Guard today announced that A.P. Moller-Maersk and UltraAqua have sold their shares in DESMI Ocean Guard to DESMI.
The transaction gives DESMI full ownership of the company, which has two successfully tested ballast water treatment systems (BWTS) in its portfolio.
The newly developed RayClean™ system was launched recently but has already secured several orders, with the first systems currently under installation.
DESMI Ocean Guard board chairman and Maersk Maritime Technology head Bo Cerup-Simonsen said: "With this agreement, we have secured our firm commitment to the long-term plans of DESMI Ocean Guard.
"Selling our share is a consequence of the Maersk Group’s strategy to focus on our core businesses and in line with the ownership plans laid out when DESMI Ocean Guard was established.
"Being outside our core activities, DESMI Ocean Guard deserves a dedicated owner with full focus on developing the business going forward.
"With the transfer of full ownership to DESMI, we are confident DESMI Ocean Guard is in the right position to succeed technically, as well as commercially."
DESMI Ocean Guard CEO Rasmus Folsø said: "In the long term, we believe that the key parameters of a successful BWTS will be reliable performance and compliance with both IMO and USCG discharge standards under all typical operating conditions, easy operation and little maintenance, and finally low total cost of ownership.
"In our opinion, we have succeeded with all three parameters.
"Working with Maersk and UltraAqua on the development of our systems has been a great privilege.
"Too many vendors of BWTS are today marketing systems without clearly informing about their limitations, but if you do not know the limits of the system you are buying, you do not know whether the system will be able to comply with the discharge standards.
"Being very aware of this issue, both Maersk and UltraAqua have pushed our systems to be tested under extremely challenging water conditions with low UV-transmittance, and we have been able to demonstrate unrivalled performance.
"The fit with DESMI is excellent and the long-term commitment we have now received will enable us to fully unlock the commercial potential of the systems."
DESMI CEO Henrik Sørensen said: "The past years’ close collaboration between all shareholders in DESMI Ocean Guard has been very rewarding and it is this collaboration that today forms the basis for the developed systems.
"The shareholders have brought their own competences to the table, which has resulted in systems we feel fit well with our company slogan: Proven Technology.
"Now, we look forward to the ratification of the IMO ballast water management convention and the associated commercialisation of the developed systems.
"DESMI Ocean Guard fits 100% within our current production and sales channels, and we expect it will become an important contributor to the ambitious growth strategy of DESMI."