Three former Cafiero family companies are to reunite to form a new Italian towage and port services group under the name Italtugs.
The new company is to be formed through the merging of the towage and port services businesses of three existing operators: Augustea, Scafi, and Cafimar.
The original Cafiero shipping group was broken up in 1982 following the death of Salvatore Cafiero. The different companies that constituted it were made over to his daughters.
Augustea is active in Augusta, Catania, Syracuse, and Pozzallo, as well as in Colombia, South America. Scafi is present in Savona, La Spezia, and Gioia Tauro in Italy but also in Panama, while Cafimar trades in Civitavecchia, Augusta, and Palermo.
The merger of their tug and port service businesses will create a group operating 70 tugs, with a workforce of 450 and annual revenues running at around EUR80 million (USD89.7 million), according to the new company, which is due to be officially constituted shortly.
It added that Italtugs would continue to trade under the names of its constituent companies and their subsidiaries.
Italtugs’ new chief executive Alessandro Russo said that the merger had been carried out to obtain synergies and economies of scale, notably in response to Italian government plans to reform the structure of the Italian port network by creating regional port authorities generally overseeing more than one port.
It would also have the size to compete on the international market for port service contracts and tender calls.
Not included in the merger plan is Naples-based Cafiero Mattioli (CaFiMa), which is engaged in harbour and deepsea towage, offshore services, and deepsea shipping.
The Cafiero family, which was originally based in Sorrento in the Bay of Naples, traces its history in shipping back to the 17th century.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
