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HISTORY
STRATEGY
FINANCIALS
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British Marine History
British Marine plc (formerly Verney Services ltd) was established in 1999 as a UK limited company for the purpose of owning and operating ships. Until 1st February 2007 when a reorganisation of the group took place, the company was operating as one of a group of companies under common control, known as the Ocean Bulk group of companies, which included Ocean Bulk Carriers (OBC) ltd, the flagship and main trading company within the group. As part of the reorganisation, all the shipping interests of the Ocean Bulk Group, including the entire business of OBC was transferred to British Marine plc.
The company was one of the first to enter the UK tonnage tax regime (established in 1999), and as a matter of policy has always maintained the bulk of its fleet under UK flag. The company’s first piece of business in 1999 was to place an order for a new building 48000 dwt handymax bulk carrier, which was subsequently delivered in 2001 under the name “Britannia”. Since then the company has been steadily building up its fleet of owned ships through timely and selective acquisitions. In September 2003, the company set up an office in Mumbai India with the aim of performing its own in-house technical management and also to develop relationships with potential customers of freight transportation in a region that promised a huge expansion in dry cargo business. From that time onwards, the company has been steadily building what has become a significant transportation service business, directed towards satisfying customers’ needs, and relying on an expansion of the number of ships chartered in from third parties as well as the expansion of its owned fleet, to meet the continuously increasing volume of customer-driven business.
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