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structure. Since all intermediate holding
companies in that structure were wound up
in a restructuring exercise, this presented
Deltamarin’s minority shareholders with a
unique opportunity to shift their 20% indirect
ownership of Deltamarin from Singapore back
to Finland. This was done by establishing a
holding company, DM Holding Oy, in Finland
in September 2016, which now directly
controls 20% of Deltamarin shares, while 80%
is controlled directly by AIMH.
Pressure in competition in the global
economy increased further in the latter
half of the 2010s, including in China, and
the companies started to consolidate and
strengthen their core businesses by selling
their non-core activities. AVIC’s core industry
was not shipbuilding but aviation so their
maritime branch AIMH was sold to China
Merchants Group (CMG), an even bigger
and stronger conglomerate than AVIC. CMG
had already substantial maritime industry
businesses and was the owner of several
shipyards, so it was logical to sell AIMH to
China Merchants Industry Investments (CMII),
an indirect subsidiary of CMG, to strengthen
its maritime branch. Together with AIMH, 80%
ownership of Deltamarin was shifted from
AVIC Group to CMG Group in February 2020,
and the seven-year period with AVIC came to
an end.
At the time of writing this, the company
has less than one year’s experience with CMG
behind it. Based on discussions so far, there
is good reason to trust that CMG will respect
Deltamarin’s independent position, brand and
way of strengthening the business so that the
company can continue following the same
principles as applied with AVIC, but now with
substantially stronger back-up.
Since February 2020,
Deltamarin has been
part of the China
Merchants Group.