Japanese finance and trading house Orix Corporation is buying 70% of Sojitz Shipping from parent Sojitz with the shipping subsidiary set to change name to Somec Corporation.
Shoei Kisen, a member of the Imabari Shipbuilding Group that handles ship leasing, will also invest in Somec, and Sojitz will continue to hold a small portion of the shares and participate in its management. No prices have been revealed for the transactions.
Sojitz announced in January this year that it would separate the business from its parent company and have it transferred to a new company. In line with this policy, Sojitz Shipping was launched in February
Orix has more than 50 years’ experience in shipping, beginning in Japan in the late 1960s with a secondhand ship leasing business and since then building up expertise in shipowning, sales, brokerage and international ship financing. In February last year Orix bought Osaka’s largest shipowner, Santoku Senpaku, in a deal valued at $2bn.
