Cochin Shipyard, the state-owned shipbuilder headquartered in Kochi, southwestern India, has signed a Share Purchase Agreement to acquire a 23% stake in Conoship International Holding BV, a Netherlands-based ship design and engineering company, according to The Hindu BusinessLine.
Conoship designs a wide range of vessels, including general cargo ships, tankers, dredgers, ferries and offshore vessels, and supplies those designs to shipyards around the world. For Cochin Shipyard, the stake is a way into Europe’s coastal and short-sea shipping market, giving it access to Conoship’s design work rather than building that expertise from scratch.
While Cochin Shipyard is majority owned by India’s federal or union government and classified as a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), its stock is is traded on the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange. It is not unusual for Indian PSUs to make investments in overseas. For example PSUs in oil exploration and production have secured assets in faraway countries.
The two companies also plan to work together on newer vessel technology, including alternate fuels for short-sea vessels, coastal shipping and inland waterway transport. Those are areas where European regulation is pushing shipbuilders toward lower emissions faster than in most other markets, and a design partner already working in that space gives Cochin Shipyard a shortcut rather than a multi-year research effort of its own.
For American and European firmsthe deal is a reminder that India’s PSUs are actively looking outward for design and technology partnerships. A minority stake can buy years of specialized design experience that would otherwise take much longer to build in-house.
