First and foremost, this can be seen as a sign that Stolt-Nielsen shares our view regarding the positive outlook for our industry. Stolt also commented yesterday that the acquiring of Odfjell shares is a pure financial investment.
Stolt-Nielsen’s chair has through the media indicated that they are willing to talk merger between our two companies, but as you may have seen in the media, our chair Laurence Odfjell does not think such talks are realistic. We believe that this share transaction is rather a “teaser” to the market ahead of a prospective Stolt Tankers spin-off.
Consolidation in the chemical sector may appear beneficial, but there are very few global players in the deep-sea specialty segment. We therefore believe that consolidation of Stolt and Odfjell, also from a customer perspective, is not realistic; customers expect real alternatives for their logistics needs.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to executive management.
Kristian Mørch
