Merwede Shipyard B.V.
On 04 June 2020 Royal IHC announced that the acquisition and recapitalisation of Royal IHC had been finalised. The newly established Foundation Continuiteit IHC, has taken over all shares of IHC Merwede Holding BV. The recapitalisation had now also been completed. As a result of this injection of capital, Royal IHC has a healthy liquidity, strong balance sheet and future prospects once again. By the establishment of the Foundation Continuiteit IHC, HAL Investments, Ackermans & van Haaren, MerweOord and Huisman have joined forces to retain Royal IHC's knowledge and expertise for the Dutch maritime cluster. The Dutch State is also represented in the foundation. The recapitalisation was concluded with the support of Royal IHC’s existing syndicate of banks, the ministries of Economic Affairs & Climate and Finance, and the credit insurer Atradius Dutch State Business.
Merwede Shipyard is one of the leading yards in the Netherlands and constructs ‘one-off’ or ‘limited’ series of ships, where the fulfilment of customer-specific requirements demands the implementation of innovative and modern engineering solutions. Merwede, a consultant for construction of modern warships as well as diesel and gas tankers, owns four modern shipyards in the Netherlands. A distinguished track record and reputation for constructing numerous highly distinctive designs is a confirmation of the versatility of Merwede Shipyard.
In Naval Ship design and shipbuilding Merwede Shipyard focuses on auxiliary vessels and support vessels such as Amphibious Transport Vessels (ATS’s), Landing Platform Docks (LPD’s) and Auxiliary Oil Replenishment vessels (AOR’s) with a side step to Corvettes where Merwede Shipyard markets the Falcon Class Corvette, a state of the art multipurpose combatant of 1500 to 2000 metric tonnes displacement. In July 2004, the New Zealand Ministry of Defence engaged Tenix Defence Pty Ltd to construct four Inshore Patrol Vessels, two Offshore Patrol Vessels and one Multi Role Vessel under Project Protector. The Royal New Zealand Navy will operate the vessels for a range of New Zealand Government agencies. On 28th July 2004 Tenix Defence Pty Ltd and Merwede Shipyard signed a contract for the design, engineering and construction of the Multi Role Vessel.
The Merwede is Nederland's most important inland water. The principal entrances to the harbor of Amsterdam are through the North Sea Canal, the Zuider Zee, and the Merwede Canal connecting with the Rhine River. The two rivers, the Maas and the Waal, the former rising in France, come together at Gorcum. They flow as one stream to Dordrecht, where the Maas, now double-branched, resumes its name. This stretch of water, called the Merwede, is one of the deepest and widest, and therefore the most important in all Nederland. It commands the Rhine and the commerce into Germany. It is no wonder, then, that at Gorcum and other points the river banks are well fortified. It is here that the great "new river," cut from Amsterdam and finished in 1892, taps the Rhine. To the region of land along the Merwede the name of Holland was given in 1015 by the Count of Friesland, Dirck III. Of these counts, ruling from 922 to 1299, seven were named Dirck, and five were named Floris.
Like the typical robber baron of the Middle Ages, and, as happens in feudalism all over the world, when strong armed men claim the possession of God's gifts of air, land, and water, Dirck III. took advantage of his position to fill his purse. He levied a heavy toll on all ships passing through the Merwede, as all the ships must pass to go to or from Germany. This he had no right to do, since the Rhine was one of the waterways of the Germanic empire. In 1064, or earlier, the Count of Holland built a tower, or thure, at the trecht, or crossing, at the east end of the Merwede, The name ihurtrecht or the tower- ferry, was in time shortened to what it is now, Dordrecht. Many Dutchmen condense the name still further and call it Dort. In jealous protest against the ship's tolls, or to gain possession of the Merwede, in order to follow the same enriching policy, other lords, both spiritual and temporal, made war on the Counts of Holland.
An advanced CAD/CAM system is used from the very beginning of a contract, creating a solid base for the entire shipbuilding process. Consequences resulting from modified requirements can be quickly quantified and executed, even during construction. World-class knowledge institutes, such as MARIN, TNO and Delft University of Technology, are close at hand. IHC Merwede Offshore & Marine has chosen the structure of close collaboration with a pool of specialist subcontractors and suppliers on a regular basis. From just a shipbuilder, the yard has increasingly become a total integrator of the complete engineering, fabricating and outfitting process. IHC Merwede collaborates with all reputable equipment suppliers and can provide turnkey solutions resulting in the ship being delivered as a complete and integrated tool, reducing the clients’ exposure in the project considerably.
Merwde Shipyard is one of the leading yards in the Netherlands. Its business policy is to respond to the desires of ship owners who require vessels with an innovative concept and modern engineering, built to a “one-off” order or limited series. A distinguished track record and a reputation for constructing numerous highly distinctive designs is a confirmation of the versatility of Merwede Shipyard. Cruise ships, Ro-Ro’s, passenger cum cargo ships, oceanographic research vessels, ferries, chemical product tankers, work ships for offshore operations, deep-sea tugs and suppliers and heavy load transportation vessels are just some examples of commercial vessels built by Merwede Shipyard.
Merwede Shipyard also enjoys worldwide recognition as one of the very few specialist shipyards with in-depth understanding of the design and construction of dredgers, including large trailing suction hopper dredgers for capital and precision dredging. Merwede Shipyard is a full subsidiary of IHC Caland NV, the Amsterdam stock exchange listed holding company of an international group active in offshore, dredger building and shipbuilding.
Merwede Shipyard is part of IHC Holland Merwede BV. IHC Holland Merwede BV. Next to specialized shipbuilding, IHC Holland Merwede BV focuses on the continuing developments of its design and construction activities for the dredging industry, in which it is world market leader. IHC Holland Merwede’s customer base includes large dredging companies, shipping companies, oil and gas companies, offshore contractors and construction companies. IHC Holland Merwede employs more than 1,800 people distributed across the shipyards in Kinderdijk, Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Sliedrecht, Delfgauw, Goes and Litostroj (Slovenia). The company has also settlements in Asia and the Middle East.
The Merwede Shipyard was acquired by IHC Caland in 1993 just as the massive land reclamation works for Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport were inspiring both project planners and dredging operators worldwide with the potential of massively larger capacity trailing suction hopper dredgers. Four years later in the continuing euphoria, IHC Caland acquired Rotterdam's van der Giessen-de Noord yard, which built a number of jumbo trailing suction hopper dredgers before the market downturn for large trailing suction hopper dredgers and stiff competition for other vessel types saw it closed recently.
IHC Caland is a supplier of equipment for the offshore oilfield service, dredging and shipping industries. The Dutch public company IHC Caland N.V. is the holding company of a group of international companies, marine technology orientated companies. Its business is to serve on a global basis the offshore oilfield service industry and the dredging, shipping and mining industries by supplying engineered products, vessels and systems and offshore oil and gas production services.
In 2004 Holland's IHC Caland group divested from its shipbuilding activities by proceeding with the sale of its IHC Holland and Merwede shipyards. The sale was not the first upheaval in the history of IHC Holland's Kinderdijk and Sliedrecht yards, which specialise in trailing suction hoppers and stationary dredgers respectively. They can trace their history back to 1687 when the Smit family, already busy building Kinderdijk's now famous windmills, also began building ships. The modern IHC Holland was founded in 1943 as a merger of six smaller shipbuilding companies for the purpose of completing an order to build six tin dredgers for alluvial mining sites in the Dutch East Indies.
In early 2005 IHC Caland completed the sale of its entire shipbuilding activities to several groups of investors and the IHC Holland employees. As of Ma 2005, IHC Caland was renamed SBM Offshore NV and continues to be listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
The buy-out was originally instigated by the fact that the shipyards’ turnover and profits fluctuated considerably. The shipyards’ returns also lagged behind the rental and lease income generated by IHC Caland’s other core activity: supplying systems and services to oil and gas-producing companies. It was obvious that the group would at some point be acquired and split up. The Executive Board, presented a proposal for buying out the shipyards in June 2004. It first considered a separate stock exchange listing, but ultimately decided to remove the shipyard activities from IHC Caland in order to merge them and subsequently sell them privately. Various parties were invited to bid for the shipyards from June 2004.
In March 2005 Rabo Capital took a 49% stake in IHC Merwede, the former IHC Caland company that builds dredging ships. By investing equity in the new company, Rabobank was able to prevent three centuries of Dutch industrial heritage from falling into foreign hands. Rabo Capital (49% shareholder), the management and employees of IHC Merwede (33% shareholder) and investment company Parkland (18% shareholder) all benefit from the revival of shipbuilding.
The shipyards have been growing by leaps and bounds ever since the buy-out. Revenue has risen by more than sixty percent and there are twenty percent more employees. This is the outcome of the buy-out of the shipyards owned by IHC Caland in March 2005. The Dutch shipbuilder generated 60% more turnover and employed 20% more people in 2007, and bought out closed shipyards and then reopened them. IHC Merwede realised turnover totalling approximately € 500 million in 2006 and this amount is set to rise to € 800 million in 2007. The number of employees has also increased from 1,800 to 2,200. And last but not least: the Van der Giessende Noord shipyard located in Krimpen aan den IJssel that was closed in 2004 has been reopened. Large dredging ships up to 38 meters wide and 240 meters long used to be built at this shipyard. The company purchased the Van der Giessen-de Noord from Hollandia in the summer of 2007, has also acquired several bankrupt companies and relaunched them in order to safeguard the supply of ship parts.
In November 2005 VT Shipbuilding signed a memorandum of understanding with Merwede Shipyard of the Netherlands covering a new working relationship for naval warship procurement outside the UK. VT Shipbuilding, part of the support services and shipbuilding company VT Group, is one of the world’s premier builders of naval vessels. At that time the Group’s advanced facilities at Portsmouth Naval Base was constructing sections of the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyer and an Offshore Patrol Vessel (Helicopter), also for the RN.
