BANK ONE ACQUIRES CONTROL OF LARGEST GERMAN SHIPYARD

BANK ONE ACQUIRES CONTROL OF LARGEST GERMAN SHIPYARD    One Equity Partners, a private equity company of Bank One Corp., has acquired a 75-percent shareholding in Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG, the largest German shipyard.
   Two German companies — Babcock Borsig AG and Preussag AG — have sold shares in the shipyard to One Equity Partners. Babcock Borsig has retained a 25-percent interest in the company.
   The board of Babcock Borsig AG and Preussag AG both approved the sales, the terms of which have not been disclosed.
   One Equity Partners has acquired 75 percent minus one share of the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft stock. The private equity company has also offered to the German industrial groups ThyssenKrupp AG and Ferrostaal AG to buy 15 percent each of the shipyard group.
   ThyssenKrupp is the parent company of the German shipyards Thyssen Nordseewerke GmbH and Blohm+Voss GmbH. Moreover, One Equity Partners made an offer to Thyssen Nordseewerke GmbH and Blohm+Voss GmbH for the conclusion of new cooperation agreements with Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft.
   The transactions concerning the takeover of Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft by One Equity Partners still require the approval of the appropriate antitrust authorities.
   “One Equity Partners has committed itself to maintaining Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft as an independent German general-purpose shipyard,” Babcock Borsig said. The new owner will not resale its remaining shares for a period of two years, Babcock Borsig said. One Equity Partners has renounced exerting any influence on the operative business and will not request a dividend in the first 5 years, it added.
   Babcock Borsig said that it has lost its majority shareholding in Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werf, but “the yard gets much nearer to its goal of a completion of the European shipyard alliance.”