Business Type: Marine Electronics
UK & International Business Sales and M&A News
The companies combine with a vision to deliver the world’s most comprehensive reference tool for port call costs in the tramp shipping sector and develop digital chartering solutions and services.
The Marcura Group, a Dubai-based group of companies focused on providing business solutions to the maritime industry, today announced the acquisition of the UK-based companies G-Ports (UK) Ltd., which specialises in port, congestion and commodity tracking data, and Falmor Ltd., a SaaS-based cloud platform for laytime/demurrage management and collaboration. Simon Francis, the Founder & CEO of the acquired companies, has assumed the role of Group Director for Business Development of Marcura’s Digital Chartering Services.
With these acquisitions and the new Group role for Mr. Francis, Marcura plans to accelerate the expansion of its port cost indices to cover costs at terminal and berth-level. The acquisitions will also support Marcura’s strategic drive to provide its chartering customers with relevant software and data-driven solutions. With his deep experience in the dry bulk sector, Mr. Francis will be fully engaged in commercializing Marcura’s most recently launched solution: MarDocs DRY, an online fixture collaboration tool for charterers, owners and brokers.
“A key determinant for any acquisition is a convincing business and cultural fit. This is certainly the case with Simon Francis and his team. We have acquired two businesses that are all about solving real industry problems, always with the customer at the centre of the solutions. Simon has shown a deep understanding of chartering and operational shipping processes and has a proven track record of delivering sustainable solutions to the industry.”
Mr. Christian Haunso, Co-Founder and Group Chair of Marcura
I’m very excited to join forces with The Marcura Group. We share a vision and combining our efforts will allow us to develop some excellent software and data-driven solutions for the shipping and commodity markets.”
Mr. Francis, Founder and CEO, G-Ports & Falmor
“Marcura’s acquisition of G-Ports and Falmor fits our strategy perfectly. By working with our customers and other partners, Marcura raises industry standards. We are not just about improving processes but also providing information that is very relevant to the respective digital journey of industry participants.
We view our role as that of a large-scale utility service provider, keeping our customers’ voyage management systems updated in a reliable manner. This has required us to build a compelling Maritime Master Data Environment and a Maritime Benchmarking Database, which when combined with external data sources, allows us to generate high-quality decision support data for universal use by our customers in chartering and operations. This latest acquisition greatly enhances the value-add that we can provide the shipping industry.”
Mr. Jens Lorens Poulsen, Co-Founder & Group CEO of Marcura
G-Ports will continue delivering its services under its current management team, which is based out of the UK. In due course, the Group’s expanded management expects to explore further synergies within the merged companies and offer more compelling solutions.
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