OCTOBER 23, 2013 — Five Japanese companies are to take a 30 percent stake in Brazilian shipbuilder ECOVIX — Engevix Construções Oceânicas S.A. They are shipbuilders Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., Namura Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., Oshima Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. and trading house Mitsubishi Corporation.

The acquisition is to be completed, once Brazilian antitrust authority approval is obtained, through a special-purpose company (SPC) to be established in Brazil by the five consortium partners. MHI will own the majority of all shares in the SPC, with the other four Japanese partners holding the remaining shares.

ECOVIX is controlled by the Jackson Group and was established in 2010 to build Petrobras's initial eight FPSO's – Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading hulls in support to Brazil's oil exploitation program at the pre-salt layer. Last year it was awarded contracts to supply engineering, procurement and construction services for three new drillships for SETE Brasil

Jointly with FUNCEF – Fundação dos Economiários Federais, the third largest pension fund in Latin America, ECOVIX also controls RG ESTALEIROS, a holding company that consolidates ECOVIX's shipyards in southern Brazil, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. ECOVIX employs over 5,000 employees and has Brazil's largest dry dock and a Goliath gantry crane with a lifting capacity of 2,000 tons.