Knightsbridge Shipping and Golden Ocean Group are set to merge, with the former serving as the surviving legal entity.

The merger process will be approved after both companies have held their general meetings of shareholders, which are scheduled for December this year or January 2015.

After the merger is competed the company will be renamed as Golden Ocean Group.

With this development, Golden Ocean Group will have a modern fleet of 72 vessels, including the 36 units that are under construction. The fleet includes 46 Capesize vessels, ten ice-class Panamax vessels, eight Kamsarmax vessels and eight Supramax vessels.

Knightsbridge chairman and CEO Ola Lorentzon and Golden Ocean Group Chairman John Fredriksen said: "By combining Knightsbridge and Golden Ocean we seek to create a company with a unique fleet and strong balance sheet and build one of the world’s leading dry bulk shipping companies.

"Upon an expected recovery of the dry bulk market and as newbuilds are brought into the fleet, we believe the combined company will generate significant cashflow."

As part of the merger process, the shareholders of Golden Ocean will receive shares in Knightsbridge, where one share in the former will be equal to 0.13749 shares in Knightsbridge. Knightsbridge will issue a total of 61.5 million shares to shareholders in Golden Ocean.

The Golden Ocean’s present corporate management team and employees is expected to manage the combined company after the merger.