GERMAN shipping group Egon Oldendorff has sold its Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft shipyard.Managing director Peter Sierk and private equity group Orlando Management took over FSG in a management buy-out. The purchase price was not revealed but the deal will become effective at the end of this year. FSG specialises in building ro-ro ferries and is one of the global market leaders in this sector. The yard has a large orderbook that will keep it fully utilised until 2013. The new owners promised that there would be no redundancies for the yards 700 workers as a result of the sale. “Our employment structure will not change, which means that the jobs are secure,” Mr Sierk said. Munich-based private equity group Orlando has to date not been active in shipping or shipbuilding. The group manages two private equity funds with a total equity of €420m ($531.4m). It said it will leave the day-to-day business to the management under Mr Sierk and will preserve FSG as an independent yard. The new owners said that they had committed themselves to investing in the shipyard if this proved necessary. They had already decided to build a separate painting hall at a cost of €3m. Oldendorff will now focus on its shipping business, run by subsidiary Oldendorff Carriers. The shipyard’s share of the group’s turnover had declined in the recent years to 10%, the company said. Synergies between both business areas were limited, as FSG concentrates on building ro-ro vessels, which Oldendorff does not operate. “We will fully concentrate on our core business,” said chairman Henning Oldendorff. “In future we will be able to concentrate all our resources on continuing to grow our dry cargo operations.”