V.Group

The deal

The teams

The story

V.Group is a diversified shipping and manpower services business. V.Ships forms the core of the business and is the world’s largest ship management business, with c.700 ships. V.Group also provides a range of commercial and technical marine services as well as related financial services.

Exponent acquired V.Group, alongside management, in March 2007, appointing David Hoare as Chairperson and Clive Richardson as CEO to help focus and professionalise the business. Under our ownership, the business made three acquisitions: RCC in Norway, ITM in Dubai and MUM in Singapore.

We were attracted to the business by its long-term growth prospects which were underpinned by the robust growth in world trade and the global shipping fleet, and the trend towards outsourcing to third party ship managers. This was being driven by the increasing regulatory burden, a growth in financial owners and a shortage of trained labour. V.Group’s scale, reputation and technical leadership afforded it significant competitive advantages and also made it well-placed to lead the consolidation of a fragmented industry.

In September 2011, Exponent completed the sale of V.Group to OMERS Private Equity for $520m.