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September 08, 2020

For further information, please contact:

Endre Johansen, Corporate Communications AS
Telephone: +47 41 61 06 05
Email: endre.johansen@corpcom.no

About ABL Group ASA

ABL Group (OSE: ABL Group ASA – ticker code “ABL”) is a leading independent global consultancy delivering energy, marine, engineering and digital solutions to drive safety and sustainability in renewables, maritime and oil & gas sectors. The group has offices in 39 countries worldwide and operates under four brands: ABL, OWC, Longitude and AGR.

LOC Germany: a year in review

LOC Group, the premier international marine and engineering consulting firm, is pleased to announce that LOC Germany, one of the Company’s most recently incorporated offices, reported a successful first year after opening in Hamburg, in August 2019.

The office has delivered revenue ahead of budget YTD, despite the macro challenges posed during the year. The performance was based on the office continuing to channel the development of multiple business streams across both the Shipping and Renewable sectors.

Since opening, LOC Germany has strongly supported extending the Group’s footprint in the European renewable energy and shipping markets, with several strategic wins and workstreams, including but not limited to:

  • A potentially multi-year framework Agreement for Marine Warranty Survey (“MWS”) services with one of Europe’s leading electricity transmission system operators, to support the realization of several offshore grid connections
  • Engineering services to another European leading TSO to assess the risk on the marine navigation caused by subsea cables
  • The award of a contract with a European Offshore Wind Farm (“OWF”) developer to provide engineering services for the assessment of marine navigational risk caused by the construction of wind farms
  • The provision of expert witness services for a European windfarm owner related to weather downtime and jack-up incident
  • Provision of expert advice to a European yacht transport company for writing the operational manual for safe handling and transportation of yachts
  • The provision of a range of vessel surveys including CMID, OVID, pre-purchase and Condition & Suitability surveys reaffirming LOC’s established reputation in marine risk and assurance services, amongst leading local ship management companies and charterers
  • Providing clients with the Group’s successful remote DP trials offer, which enables them to maintain their DP compliance, despite the widespread travel restrictions due to COVID-19
  • Engineering and on-site supervision services to a European vessel owner relating to the marine transportation of a 750t PIF (Pile Installation Frame) and full marine transportation engineering services to a European ship owner for a 400t ship unloader

On the back of a promising first year, LOC Germany is now looking to expand its team to further drive the business into the shipping arena, including LOC’s traditional service offering of marine casualty support and work as expert witness on claims, defence and litigation for shipping and port matters.

LOC Germany is co-led by Christoph Ruck and Emek Ersin Takmaz.

Christoph is a naval architect and international welding engineer, with over 15 years’ experience in the marine industry specialising in heavy lift and offshore installation operations and previously worked as a classification society engineer and surveyor for DNVGL.

Emek is also naval architect and project manager with over eight years’ experience in marine T&I operations. His project expertise ranges across the full project lifecycle, from early engineering and planning to execution phases across renewable, infrastructure and oil & gas sectors. Prior to joining LOC, he worked as Head of Projects Engineering at Hansa Heavy Lift GmbH, the heavy lift shipping company in Hamburg, and was previously with the EPCI company McDermott in Dubai.

Ian Cummins, Regional Director for European Operations, comments:

“Since opening the office doors in Germany last summer, the team has worked on dynamically expanding LOC’s footprint in the European Shipping and Renewable markets. They have successfully drawn on the expertise and support of the wider LOC Group to drive growth in LOC’s traditional service offerings, whilst developing new initiative areas where relevant”.