Grindrod acquires Bay Stevedores

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

19 Mar 2008

Grindrod yesterday announced the acquisition of the business of Bay Stevedores (Pty) Ltd, backdated to be effective from 1 July 2007. The cost of the investment is undisclosed. Bay Stevedores will become a division of Grindrod Terminals (Pty) Ltd, a 100% owned subsidiary of Grindrod Limited.  Bay Stevedores, situated in the port of Richards Bay, was formed in 1993 and is a stevedoring business specialising in the pay loading and separation of bulk cargo. The business provides services to Grindrod affiliated companies as well as third parties.''Our business is about moving cargo and taking care of all logistical factors on route. The acquisition of Bay Stevedores is simply the purchase of another piece of the supply chain puzzle. This business complements our existing terminal operations in Richards Bay and goes hand in hand with Grindrod's strategy to grow its service offering to customers in the bulk cargo handling market,'' said Dave Rennie, executive director Grindrod Limited. Frank Phillips and ''Dup'' du Preez, both directors of Bay Stevedores (Pty) Ltd, will continue to run the operation. ''The deal has taken a while to finalise as the stevedoring licence and property lease agreement with Transnet had to be transferred to Grindrod Terminals (Pty) Ltd. We are very pleased with the eventual outcome and look forward to being part of growing Grindrod’s terminal operations going forward'', said Mr. du Preez.  All management and staff have been retained.