Neptun Ship Design in Rostock is being acquired as an independent subsidiary of MV WERFTEN to provide design services for the shipyard group in future. In addition to the group’s own designers at its yards in Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund as well as a designer network throughout Europe, further significant engineering capacities are thus being united under one roof. The acquisition will increase the workforce at MV WERFTEN by 120 experts.

“We welcome the acquisition and the new, experienced colleagues in our team. We are very familiar with their expertise from our intensive cooperation in the past. We appreciate one another, we need this potential and we are thus all the more pleased about the new member of our family,” stated Peter Fetten, CEO of MV WERFTEN.

MV WERFTEN is currently focusing on the Global Class and the expedition ship CRYSTAL ENDEAVOR. The new engineers and designers will be mainly working on the basic design of new ship projects. Highly complex vessels will now be developed and designed together in an expanded team.

Stephan Merkel, Managing Director at Neptun Ship Design, noted: “We are proud about our development to date, but it is now time to take on the challenges involved with the engineering required for the most advanced passenger ships in the world as well as the entire current and future product portfolio of MV WERFTEN. It is certainly a great opportunity for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. We now want to be directly involved in realising this.”

The purchase agreement was signed by all the parties in Wismar on 16 January and will become effective after approval has been given by the cartel authorities. It was agreed not to disclose any details about the structure of the transaction or the purchase price.

“The acquisition also, of course, takes into consideration the handling of current orders and the continuation of our research and ship development projects so that we maintain our traditions and our spirit of innovation. That we’ll now be doing this under a new roof and with direct participation in the mega projects is a real boost to our motivation,”,” added Stephan Merkel.