Ropes & Gray Advises American Industrial Partners on the Acquisitions of AquaShip and Intership – Creating a Leading Global Aqua Service Vessel Operator

Ropes & Gray has acted as lead counsel advising American Industrial Partners (AIP) – a New York based private equity firm focused on buying and improving industrial businesses – on the acquisitions by its managed investment fund American Industrial Partner Capital Fund VII, L.P. of majority stakes in Norwegian headquartered AquaShip AS and Intership AS and the subsequent merger and refinancing of the combined group. The merger of AquaShip and Intership creates one of the largest, most diversified aqua service vessel operators globally.

AquaShip is the only company that owns and operates vessels in all four main areas of aqua services. Intership has built one of the world's most modern wellboat fleets and has proven to be an innovative player by bringing new and fish-friendly freshwater treatment for lice and gill diseases into the market. Together, the combined group will have a fleet of 39 vessels and nearly 700 employees operating in Chile, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and Norway. The combined group will benefit from significant access to capital as a result of the transaction, enabling execution of ambitious growth plans on the back of increasing demand for diversified aqua services from both new and established customers globally.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by private equity partner Victoria McGrath and finance partner Alex Robb, with private equity associate Sam Wolfe-Murray, finance associates Sean Darling, Adjoa Kwarteng, Kahill Sarronwala and Alma Yasin, trainees Katherine Fielding and Imogen Galilee and finance counsel Ana Biloglav. Other members of the team included tax partners Brenda Coleman and David Saltzman and tax associates Michael Mendel and Benjamin Wonnacott, and asset management partner Anna Lawry.