In a strange tale of shipping company transactions the Company we all know as Dockwise the yacht transporter has been quietly sold to its biggest competitor.
The Dutch consortium Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) is a global services provider operating in the dredging, maritime infrastructure and maritime services sectors. The company provide a variety of shipping services including subsea, heavy transport, lifting and installation (towage and salvage. They operate in around 75 countries across six continents and have more than 11,000 employees.
When they bought out the Dutch company Dockwise in March 2013, they also acquired the activities of Dockwise Yacht Transport (DYT), whose core business is the transatlantic migration of luxury yachts between Florida, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.
For Boskalis, these activities had no strategic value and did not fit into the group’s existing core business so they sold off the DYT activities including the 2 dedicated semi-submersible yacht transport vessels Super Servant 4 and Yacht Express for a total consideration of USD 40 million.
Who did they sell them to? None other than the main rival to DYT a company called Sevenstar Yacht Transport B.V. based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.