Norway’s Fred Olsen & Co is bringing to an end 119 years of separate operations for its holding companies Bonheur and Ganger Rolf after it announced a merger.

The two Oslo-listed owners of the venerable shipping group’s assets could be combined as early as May if shareholders back the move.

Bonheur said this week the merger was being pursued to provide “a more transparent and accessible corporate structure which may yield capital and operational efficiencies”.

Fred Olsen & Co chief financial officer Jan Peter Valheim denies the timing is linked to the current severe slump in many shipping markets.

“No, that was not the case, it would have happened anyway,” he told TradeWinds. “We started the process quite some time ago.”

The company will save money as a result, he says, not least from dropping Ganger Rolf’s listing.

“It’s not a huge amount but we will enjoy some operational savings,” Valheim added. “It will make the company more transparent and efficient.”

When asked if the merger would also involve changes to the fleet, Valheim said: “No, it is purely an operational matter and does not have a direct effect on the fleet.”

The two outfits operate on a cross-ownership basis and used to report separate results for Olsen’s cruiseships, tankers, drilling and other interests, but Bonheur has been the dominant company since 2006, with a 62.66% holding in Ganger Rolf.

Bonheur will maintain its Oslo listing, with Ganger Rolf shareholders receiving 0.8174 Bonheur shares for every one they own, equalling 23.95% of the new company.

The two have generally invested in subsidiaries on a 50/50 basis.

Management will remain as it is and Fred Olsen-related companies Quatro, Invento and Trassey Shipping will still be the majority shareholders in the merged entity with a combined 51.4%.

The companies have no employees but have Fred Olsen & Co owner Anette Olsen as managing director.

Bonheur and Ganger Rolf own 52% of Oslo-listed drilling company Fred Olsen Energy (FOE), as well as 100% of Fred Olsen Cruises, Fred Olsen Renewables and Fred Olsen Ocean, which is involved in wind-farm installation ships and tanker shipping.

They also control 54% of TradeWinds’ Norwegian parent publisher, NHST Media Group.

Fred Olsen & Co traces its roots back to 1848 when the family first entered the shipowning business.

Ganger Rolf — the name of a Viking ruler of Normandy — was formed in 1895 and Bonheur, a name shared by a 19th-century Olsen steamship, was established in 1897 back in the days when the modern Norwegian shipping industry was emerging.

They oversaw the group’s shift from sail to steam and into liner and passenger services.

Valheim explains they were formed as single-purpose companies and by the 1980s — before his time — were among five or six Fred Olsen holding operations involved in cross-ownership. This was then reduced to two.

At one time, investments included aviation and shipbuilding — the Aker yards and offshore construction group was majority owned by Bonheur and Ganger Rolf for about 70 years until it was sold in the mid-1980s. The Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast is still owned through FOE.

Tankers were once a more important part of the business as well but have been scaled back.

Bonheur says its shipping and offshore wing swung to a net loss of NOK 55m ($6.4m) in the third quarter compared to earnings of NOK 78m a year ago.

But its cruise business is on the rise, posting revenue of NOK 647m against NOK 474m, with net profit at NOK 123m compared to NOK 44m in 2014.