Bergen Group has entered into an agreement with GMTH Holding AS regarding the sale of Bergen Group Kimek AS and Bergen Group Kimek Offshore AS for an enterprise value of approximately NOK 65 million. The transaction is expected to be completed within the end of this year.
GMTH Holding is an investment company that is locally owned in Kirkenes. The CEO of GMTH Holding is Greger Mannsverk, who is also managing director for Bergen Group Kimek and Bergen Group Kimek Offshore.
The sale of the two Kimek companies is part of the structural changes that are being implemented in connection with the Group's plans for more coordinated offshore efforts, based on the industrial area at Hanøytangen, just outside Bergen. During the past six months, Bergen Group has implemented extensive structural changes that will form the basis for both profitable operations and a strengthened market position. Most of the activities within the Offshore and Service divisions are, as of 1st of January 2014, coordinated into one company under common management and with Hanøytangen as its headquarters.
"The Kimek companies form a very exciting resource in connection with the increasing level of offshore activity expected by the market in Northern Norway. Still, from an overall assessment we have found it more appropriate to prioritize the focus and resources directed towards the extensive further development that we have started at Hanøytangen", says CEO Asle Solheim.
Solheim is very pleased with the fact that the current management in the Kimek companies also are shareholders in the buying company GMTH Holding AS.
"Even if Bergen Group now leaves its ownership of the Kimek companies, we are prepared to maintain and further develop the contact network we have developed in this region. The collaboration with the new owners of the Kimek companies will be important to us in the future", Solheim emphasizes.
Greger Mannsverk, who represents the buyer GMTH Holding, looks forward to further developing the Kimek-companies.
"We are heading towards an exciting period with many possibilities connected to the increase in activity in the region. I am convinced that this provides growth possibilities for us. At the same time I believe that a locally anchored ownership will be strength in order to utilize this growth potential in a best possible way both in the short and the long term", Mannsverk says.
Bergen Group Kimek and Bergen Group Kimek currently have 120 employees in total. In 2012 the Kirkenes companies had a total turnover of around NOK 110 million. Bergen Group has had 100 % of the shares in the Kimek companies since 2007.
GMTH Holding AS is an investment company with owners from Kirkenes. The company was founded in the autumn of 2013, as a holding company for the Kimek companies. The company is owned by GT Finans AS and people in leading positions at Kimek and Kimek Offshore.
