NORDEN has established a joint venture with Synergy Marine Group which will handle the technical management of the company’s owned tanker vessels, effective as of 20 August 2020. NORDEN already has a good partnership with Synergy, which has successfully managed the dry cargo fleet since September 2019.

In-house technical management is incompatible with NORDEN’s transition to a trading-oriented business with large and frequent fluctuations in the number of ships owned. While NORDEN has delivered safe, reliable and cost-efficient technical management of the NORDEN owned fleet over many years, it does not provide the commercial flexibility required nor economies of scale to invest in digitalisation of technical management, where Synergy is a leading provider of digital solutions.

“NORDEN requires a nimble approach to ownership, both commercially and organisationally. The partnership with Synergy enables NORDEN to be fully focused on optimising trading and commercial operations while ensuring safe, efficient and flexible technical management of the owned fleet,” says CEO Jan Rindbo.

NORDEN will transfer 116 employees to the 50/50 owned joint venture, which will be headquartered in Copenhagen, supported by a 100% owned subsidiary in India, and with Danish flagged vessels continuing to sail under the same flag. The 116 employees transferred to the joint venture includes seafarers currently employed directly through NORDEN. The remaining seafarers will be offered new contracts through Synergy.15 employees will be offered employment in new roles in either NORDEN, the joint venture or Synergy.

However, as a consequence of the restructuring, NORDEN will unfortunately part ways with 25 colleagues in Copenhagen, Manila and Mumbai. Technical management has been an integrated part of NORDEN’s history for many years so it is not a decision taken lightly, especially in view of the dedicated contribution from many skilled colleagues over the years. The partnership does, however, enable NORDEN to be fully focused on optimising trading and commercial operations across the company, areas where NORDEN has a real competitive edge.