Cape Town, 2 October 2018: Sturrock Grindrod Maritime (Pty) Limited (SGM), a wholly owned subsidiary of the JSE listed Grindrod group, announced their acquisition of Novagroup. Nova are leading providers of marine and aviation rescue and survival equipment, container storage, shipwright, warehousing, bespoke engineering and support services.
Both Novagroup and SGM enjoy rich maritime histories and are well known brands in the industry.
“The intention is to strengthen our position in the niche marine technical market,” says Andrew Sturrock, CEO of SGM. “This acquisition will enable us to leverage off the respective sales and servicing agreements of both SGM and Nova, with a view to enhance our already impressive range of services and to increase our comprehensive product offering to the marine and shore based industries we serve.”
SGM is a leading ships agency and provider of logistics and maritime technical services representing a range of blue-chip shipowners, operators and charterers. In addition, through its current SGMT subsidiary, the company boasts strong technical competencies and services and distributes a significant number of reputable international OEMs that provide products to both the maritime and offshore markets.
This merging of marine service businesses with the empowerment credentials, scope, reach and experience of SGM, in tandem with the unique skills, long standing brands and niche focus areas of Novagroup, will make for a most compelling and competitive business model.
Sturrock Grindrod Maritime is ISO 9001:2015 certified, TRACE certified, a member of the South African Association of Ship Operators and Agents (SAASOA) and the South African Oil and Gas Association (SAOGA).
SGM is currently a Level 2 B-BBEE contributor.
A focused emerging markets expansion strategy has seen SGM opening new branches (commercial and operational) in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, in addition to their long established businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa and Australia. SGM’s footprint now spans some 60 offices in 14 countries.
The transaction was subject to approval by the South African Competition Commission which was granted without conditions on 26 September 2018.