Organisational changes at Broström

The purpose is to ensure that Broström will continue as a strong brand and further build on the Broström heritage. The new setup means that all vessels in the segment below 25,000 dwt from both companies will trade under the Broström name, commercially managed from Gothenburg, Sweden. All vessels above 25,000 dwt, except for tonnage managed out of Broström’s Paris office, are intended to be integrated into Handytankers, which is Maersk Tankers’ commercial vehicle in this segment. The Handytanker pool is managed from Copenhagen, Denmark.

All technical and support functions in Broström and Handytankers are intended to be integrated with Maersk Tankers’ central organisation in order to have a cost-effective organisation.

It is the clear ambition that all the current partnerships of both Broström and Maersk Tankers will continue to exist in the new and combined structure.

The proposed new joint organisation means that some of Broström’s current offices will close or be scaled down. The offices in Larvik and Holbæk are planned to close while Broström’s office in Singapore will reorganise and scale down. The office in Gothenburg is intended to end up with roughly the same amount of staff but the corporate functions and support functions will be scaled down, while the commercial functions will grow.

Furthermore, Managing Director Lennart Simonsson and Deputy Managing Director Anders Dreijer have in connection with the organisational changes chosen to step down, but will both continue as special advisors. Until a new Managing Director has been appointed, Kristian Mørch will devote significant time to the integration of Broström.

The final completion of the new joint organisation, including remodelling of activities and relocation of employees, is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.