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Nordcapital purchase share of Harper Petersen - 07/07/2003

Nordcapital has purchased a large shareholding in Harper Petersen, the container broking arm of the Denholm Shipping Company.

The German ship owner is now the largest single shareholder in Harper Petersen, which was founded in 1943.

This deal will allow Harper Petersen access to larger containerships than previously, and will also see Harper Petersen become sole broker for Nordcapital's containership fleet as these come off current charter.

Harper Petersen now has three shareholders — Nordcapital, Denholm, and Kenneth Petersen, son of the company’s founder and now chairman.

"No change is envisaged to this shareholding structure", said Trevor Fairhurst, a director of the Denholm Shipping division of the J. & J. Denholm Group.

Harper Petersen's head office will remain in London with a new office in the important Hamburg market. The three directors of the company are Mr Petersen, Duncan Brown, who has been with Harper Petersen since 1995, and Jens Mahnke, Nordcapital’s representative.

Questioned on whether Nordcapital's competitors would now be deterred from using Harper Petersen's services, Mr Fairhurst said he felt this was unlikely. “It must always be a risk when the weight shifts, but we think not” he said, adding that he felt the marriage of Denholm and Nordcapital through Harper Petersen would open up other avenues. “It is hoped there will be numerous areas of co-operation. Denholm has a whole range of companies providing services to shipowners and Nordcapital has access to the KG market.”

Denholm has only minor interests in container tonnage, but provides a service to users of ships, such as large liner companies, which do not need to own the asset. Denholm often provides the ship, usually owned by the Group and managed by its affiliate Anglo Eastern, which is chartered out for a certain period.