NORDEN has entered into an agreement to acquire Norwegian dry bulk operator Norlat Shipping, which specialises in the shipment of forest products and other bulk commodities, with main trading routes from Northern Europe to North Africa and North America.

“With a customer-centric business and trading routes complementary to NORDEN’s, Norlat is a great fit with NORDEN,’ says NORDEN CEO Jan Rindbo. “Norlat allows NORDEN to further cement our growing position within projects and parcelling, enabling us to offer our customers fully flexible solutions, as a global provider of ocean-based freight services for bulk and project cargo of all sizes.”

“The Norlat team is very excited to join NORDEN, an industry leader that has shown impressive results and strong growth over the years. Honesty, integrity and reliability have been the core of Norlat’s operations, and we feel that NORDEN, thinking in the same way, is an excellent fit for us. NORDEN’s success and growth has been an inspiration to Norlat, and we are confident that there are a lot of synergies that can be exploited. Our operations have many similarities, but almost no overlaps. Joining NORDEN will help us bring out the untapped potential that our team possesses, we are looking forward to starting this new adventure“, says Norlat Managing Director Paal Henrik Boehaugen.

Privately owned Norlat was founded in 1986 and has since developed a core business focusing on the shipment of sawn timber from Baltic and Continental ports to North Africa and North America.

Norlat has offices in Sarpsborg and Bergen in Norway and in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, from where the company’s eight employees operate the asset light business, based on chartered vessels with four to five monthly shipments on predominately Handysize ships.

“Norlat is an extremely skilled parcelling business, increasing NORDEN’s access to the Northern European forestry trade, new customers and cargo. Matched with NORDEN’s size and access, there are significant opportunities for further growth and commercial synergies,” adds Jan Rindbo.

The acquisition will be NORDEN’s second, following the mid-2023 acquisition of the activities of Thorco Projects, which is today fully integrated into NORDEN’s Freight Services & Trading business unit, operating as ‘Projects & Parcelling’. Norlat Shipping will become part of the Projects & Parcelling team in NORDEN.

The acquisition sum is undisclosed and will not affect NORDEN’s guidance for full-year 2024. The acquisition is subject to merger clearance.