Viking Acquires Hook Retrofit leader

Leading marine and fire safety equipment and servicing provider VIKING Life-Saving Equipment A/S has today announced the acquisition of Nadiro A/S, a company owned by maritime and energy conglomerate Maersk Group and SH Group.

Established in 2009, Svendborg, Denmark-based Nadiro manufactures high-quality lifeboat and rescue craft systems, developing and promoting its Drop-in-BallTM technology to help ensure crew safety. VIKING has had the status of Preferred Distributor and Service Provider, supplying the company’s LRRSs (lifeboat release and retrieval systems) to enable the world’s shipowners to comply with new SOLAS regulations by or before 2019. Hook retrofitting is necessary to prevent serious accidents resulting from unsafe lifeboat deployment systems. Nadiro enables VIKING to provide high-quality, extremely reliable solutions that ensure safety levels beyond basic compliance.

VIKING CEO Henrik Uhd Christensen explains the acquisition of Nadiro as a strategic move that enables his company to better address this key safety issue for its customers, and as part of the continued expansion of VIKING’s already extensive product portfolio.

“For more than a decade, on-load release hooks installed to enable lifeboats to be lowered into and retrieved from the water have themselves been the cause of numerous accidents,” says Henrik Uhd Christensen. “Some have involved fatalities. With our stated mission to protect and save human lives all over the world, and our global leadership within maritime safety equipment, doing everything we can to rectify the problem has been a natural focal point for VIKING over the past few years.”

Henrik Uhd Christensen sees Nadiro, which will be integrated into the VIKING organization, as a perfect fit for the company:

“Nadiro has performed well, and its products have been instrumental in ensuring the safety of crew on board many vessels. Now the time has come to add further power to Nadiro’s expansion via a focused, global safety platform. And VIKING is the right company to provide that platform.”

With VIKING’s global network and resources supporting its work, VIKING Nadiro, as the brand will be renamed, enables VIKING to provide a solution that goes beyond basic compliance.

“The VIKING Nadiro brand will give shipowners a complete and high-quality answer to the LRRS compliance challenge,” concludes Henrik Uhd Christensen.