FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Prima Marine snaps up 70% of Big Sea for Bt1.4 billion

Prima Marine snaps up 70% of Big Sea for Bt1.4 billion

Prima Marine has bought 70 per cent of the shares in Big Sea, a major domestic maritime petroleum transportation service company, for Bt1.4 billion, it was announced on Monday.


The listed company will also acquire the remaining 30 per cent gradually over a three-year period for around Bt800 million. 
The combined project value is expected to range between Bt2 billion and Bt2.3 billion, depending on business performance, and the internal rate of return is expected to reach 11.7 per cent, Prima Marine said. 
The company’s capacity to perform maritime crude oil transportation will be enhanced, and with new customers from Big Sea its market share will jump to 49 per cent, said chief executive Acting Sub-Lieutenant Chanwit Anakkul. 
The acquisition will strengthen Prima Marine’s business in the long run and allow the company to benefit from the growing domestic oil transportation industry, he added.
Chanwit said the acquisition of Big Sea shares would double Prima Marine’s capacity in the transport vessel segment, enable the company to become the top provider of domestic maritime oil transportation service and increase its capacity to manage an additional 5 billion litres of products per year, and to better respond to customers’ requirements. 
For example, its market shares will leap from 15 per cent to 43 per cent for Chevron, from 19 per cent to 64 per cent for Shell, from 19 per cent to 52 per cent for IRPC, and from 67 per cent to 69 per cent for PTT, he explained. 
It will also win a market share of 37 per cent, in terms of volume of oil transported by vessels, for Bangchak as a new customer.
Big Sea is a domestic maritime petroleum transportation service company with the second-highest market share. 
It owns a small fleet of 13 transport vessels with an average life of 17.3 years and an average storage capacity of 2.7 million litres each, and roughly 35,000 deadweight tonnage (around 35 million litres) in total. 
Big Sea is also building a new vessel with a storage capacity of 5.3 million litres.

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