Beluga brings American investor on board

Beluga brings American investor on board    Beluga Shipping GmbH, an ocean carrier specializing in the transport of project and heavy lift cargoes, has brought on board American investment company Oaktree Capital Management to assist with its future vessel building programs.
   'Oaktree has substantial investment experience within the shipping sector. We see Beluga Shipping as an innovative, strong and successful company with enormous growth potential in its core business as well as in the emerging offshore business segment,' said Hermann T. Dambach, Oaktree's managing director in Germany.
   The partnership between Oaktree and the ocean carrier will become official later this month, Beluga said.
   For the past 12 months, Beluga has been constructing special multipurpose heavy-lift project carriers that will be fitted with cranes capable of lifting up to 2,000 tons in tandem using twin onboard 1,000-ton cranes. The market conditions for these carriers have significantly improved during the last 18 months, Beluga said.
   In addition, Beluga is involved in a joint venture with Hochtief Construction AG, called Beluga Hochtief Offshore, to build erector ships — a type of jack-up vessel — that will be able to load, transport and even install offshore wind farms. In addition to these ships, Beluga is also planning two cable-laying ships and two supply vessels for the offshore wind farm sector.