Clarksons today revealed it will pay £281.2m ($441m) for Platou in a deal which will strengthen the London-listed company’s already dominant position in the market.
Clarkson's boss Case said: “There is plenty of strategic growth for us. This is not the final piece in the jigsaw. We still have a lot of strategy that has been laid out clearly with the board. We have done a number of bite-size acquisitions over the last six years. We have also had a huge amount of organic growth as well. We will continue to seek opportunity in order to move the company forward.”
RS Platou’s long term chief executive Peter Anker is set to join the Clarksons’ board and will take the title of president of broking and investment banking. RS
Platou’s revenue has grown from £4m per year in 1987 when Anker completed a management buyout, to £130m ($204m) per year in 2013.
“I wanted to continue to grow Platou,” Anker said. “But I realized there was no way we could build a leading franchise in shipbroking that Clarksons is today.
“The only realistic way of doing this I realized was to pursue a combination with Clarksons. There were limits to how far we could take the company.”
Clarksons will pay 75% of the purchase price in shares, 16.66% in loan notes and 8.35% in cash.