GC Rieber Shipping is not just hiring offshore veteran Christian Berg as its new chief executive, it is also conspicuously adopting his business model.

Berg’s start-up, Bech Offshore, entered the market only this year with the goal of serving a distressed niche for offshore support vessels (OSVs).

Bech aimed to offer independent commercial management and advisory services, especially for banks with repossessed ships or other investors seeking an opportunistic entry into the sector’s lowest point in 30 years.