Norwegian shipbroker Lorentzen & Co has declared bankruptcy after over 100 years in business.
Oslo-based firm
The Oslo-based firm submitted a tender request earlier this week following several years of high losses and a name change to Lilleaker Shipping Advisors.Lorentzen & Co was founded in 1919 by the four sons of captain and shipowner Johannes Lorentzen. Over the next five years, the brothers extended their company into ship ownership and, eventually, dry cargo ship operations. In 1959, the shipbroking firm was separated into Lorentzen Chartering and F H Lorentzen & Sons. Jrgen Lorentzen, Otto Grieg Tidemand, and James Stove Lorentzen ran Lorentzen Chartering. In the mid-1990s, the company amalgamated with Stemoco, and the name was changed to Lorentzen & Stemoco. In 2013, the Tidemand family purchased the company’s other shareholders.
The company’s debt is estimated to be over NOK100m ($9.3m), with close to NOK80m owed to Tidships, where Kristin Tidemand Eckhoff recently bought out her sister Caroline Figenschou Tidemand – both fourth-generation descendants of Jrgen Lorentzen.
Six of the brokerage’s 16 top workers resigned earlier this year, including acting general manager and chief of finance Haakon Hammer. Chairman Christian Andersen has overseen the corporation since then. He is also the sole remaining board member of what is now Lilleaker Shipping Advisors, having left just over a year ago.
Did you subscribe to our newsletter?
It’s free! Click here to subscribe!
Source:Splash247
