Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine has agreed to sell its dynamic positioning (DP) product to US-based thruster manufacturer Thrustmaster of Texas, Inc.
The agreement means that Thrustmaster of Texas takes over the intellectual property rights to produce and sell the DP product.
Thrustmaster of Texas president Joe Bekker told this publication "Thrustmaster plans to move the production of the DP product acquired from Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine from Norway to Houston, TX (where the company is headquartered), during the course of this calendar year".
"We plan to grow the product both as an independent product line as well as an accessory to our existing thruster products. We are not looking at licensing it to other producers," Mr Bekker said, noting that the product complimented the existing Thrustmaster product line.
In a statement, Rolls-Royce said it will also pass on necessary documentation and knowledge of the DP product, but that agreement does not involve transferring personnel.
Neither party was willing to comment on the price of the sale.
In early July 2018, Rolls-Royce agreed to sell its Commercial Marine division to Kongsberg in Norway. The acquisition hasn't finalised yet, however, as it is awaiting a ruling from competition authorities, which is due in the first half of 2019, according to a Kongsberg spokesperson.
As a direct result of acquiring Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine, Kongsberg Gruppen announced last week it had entered into an agreement with Rome AS to divest its Evotec division in order to meet regulatory requirements regarding competition in the market for seismic vessel deck equipment.
The deal closed as of 21 January 2019, and neither party has disclosed the price of the transaction.
Thrustmaster of Texas manufactures heavy duty commercial marine propulsion and thrusters. The factory and production of all thrusters is based out of Houston, Texas, with a global network of sales offices in Rotterdam, Singapore, China, Dubai and Brazil. A service office is located in Houma, Louisiana to assist offshore clients.
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