Kværner
Kvaerner is a Norway-based engineering and construction services company. Major subsidiaries are Aker Kvaerner and Aker Yards.
Kvaerner was founded in Oslo in 1853 and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 1967. By the 1990s, Kvaerner assembled a collection of engineering and industrial businesses, including shipbuilding, construction of offshore oil and gas platforms, production of pulp and paper manufacturing equipment, and operation of shipping fleet.
In 1996, Kvaerner acquired the UK conglomerate Trafalgar House and moved its international headquarters from Oslo to London. It added further acquisitions, financed predominantly by debt, until the economic slowdown in 2001 and a series of management missteps brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy.
In November 2001, Kvaerner was forced to merge with its rival Aker Maritime, a Norwegian oil services group controlled by Kjell Inge Røkke. Røkke scuppered the solution preferred by Kvaerner's management, a rescue by Russia's oil giant Yukos. Kvaerner's international headquarters returned to Oslo and Kvaerner was restructured to become a holding company, with operating activities concentrated in Aker Kvaerner and Aker Yards.