Close Brothers Private Equity (CBPE – Notes to Editors), is to invest $30m in V.Ships, the world’s largest third-party manager of vessels in both the cargo and leisure sectors.

V.Ships, (www.vships.com), with offices in over 40 countries, offers it’s clients a complete outsourced management service. The Group has grown strongly both by investing in the development of market leading ship management systems to attain high service standards and by acquisition, most recently with the purchase of Acomarit in 2001.

CBPE Fund VI will acquire a significant stake in the V.Ships Group, while V.Ships’ senior management and a number of other staff will see their collective shareholding rise to 45%. Vlasov Group and GE Capital will retain their commitment to V.Ships by retaining a small shareholding interest.

Tullio Biggi, President of V.Ships, says this significant introduction of new capital into V.Ships marks a further
important milestone for the group. He comments: “We acquired Acomarit some two years ago and have made a number of other smaller, yet equally important acquisitions, making V.Ships the leading ship management and shipping services organisation. We now need to build on the existing strengths within the Group and proceed with our development plans which we believe will be best achieved under the new financial structure.”

“We have been working with Close Brothers Private Equity for some six months; they have looked closely at our business and understand it well. We share a common goal of creating value for all shareholders by providing a wide range of services, at the right price, and right where our customers want them, through our global network.”

Neil Murphy, Partner, CBPE comments: “We are delighted to participate in the further development of V.Ships. CBPE is supportive of outsourcing businesses in other service sectors and is looking forward to helping to grow this market-leading maritime outsourcing company which manages an impressive portfolio of assets in the tanker, bulk carrier, leisure and other sectors of the shipping industry”.

V.Ships has also arranged new banking facilities with Bank of Scotland and BNP Paribas, represented by Iain Purves and Neale Broadhead respectively.

Contact:

Close Brothers Private Equity
Neil Murphy: 00 44 207 426 4183
Simon Wildig: 00 44 207 426 4184

V.Ships Group
Malcolm Willingale: 00 44 489 0088