sources . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message bw group limited type private industry shipping headquarters oslo and singapore area served global key people chairman andreas sohmen pao ; ceo carsten mortensen number of employees 4 500 2016 website www.bwgroup.net the bw group previously bergesen worldwide is an international maritime group that through its subsidiaries operates within the tanker gas and offshore segments with a fleet of more than 100 owned part owned or controlled vessels . the group has seven business areas crude tankers product tankers chemical tankers lng liquefied natural gas carriers lpg liquefied petroleum gas carriers offshore floating production vessels fpso and offshore technology mooring systems for fpsos and offshore lng terminals . the company was created as a merger between bergesen d.y. and world wide shipping . operations are performed by subsidiaries with bw gas and bw offshore being publicly listed companies . bw gas delisted in 2009 . main offices are in oslo and singapore while the holding company is registered in bermuda . the bw group comprises bw offshore bw lpg bw pacific bw lng bw vlcc bw chemical tankers bw dry cargo and bw fleet management . with offices in eight countries bw group employs more than 4 500 people . bw group manages the world s largest independently owned and operated fleet of gas carriers lng and lpg and the second largest fleet of fpso vessels . history edit the bw group includes two long standing shipping businesses world wide shipping founded by sir yue kong pao and bergesen d.y. which was acquired by world wide in 2003 . in the late 1970s two british hongs were taken over by chinese entrepreneurs hutchison whampoa ltd by li ka shing and kowloon wharf by yue kong pao . y.k. pao was a native from ningbo zhejiang province who came to hong kong in 1949 and acquired an aging ship to establish the worldwide shipping company in 1955 . at its peak in 1979 world wide had 204 ships totalling 20 500 000 tonnes deadweight dwt . in the shipping downturn starting in 1978 world wide sold tonnage while prices were still reasonable paying off debt and building cash resources . in less than five years the fleet had halved in size allowing world wide to avoid the crises suffered by many shipping companies . in 1989 pao passed on his interest in world wide to his eldest daughter anna sohmen pao shortly before his death in 1991 . world wide was ranked as the sixth largest shipping fleet number of vessels in the world in 2004 and has been chaired by helmut sohmen pao s eldest daughter s husband since 1986 . in late 2000 following a period of stakebuilding starting in bergesen d.y. the sohmen family came to an agreement in march 2003 with morten bergesen and petter sundt the controlling family shareholders to buy their interest in bergesen and mount a full public offering for all outstanding shares . in 2004 following completion of this transaction there was a reorganisation of the sohmen family interests with the creation of a new top holding company bergesen worldwide ltd. registered in bermuda which is owned 93 % by the sohmen family and 7 % by hsbc . the holding company was subsequently renamed bw group limited . in 2005 a further re organisation took place accompanied by the re branding of the business under a single group brand bw . bw gas was listed in oslo in october 2005 as a pure gas shipping company with the bw group retaining a majority share . bw offshore followed suit by being listed in may 2006 . the other assets remain in private ownership . in 2009 bw gas was privatised . on 21 november 2013 the lpg business was listed on the oslo stock exchange as bw lpg . external links edit bw group website bw lpg website bw offshore website v t e bw group companies bw group bw offshore bw lpg bw maritime bw green marine capital bw shipping and gas solutions bw fleet management defunct companies bergesen d.y. asa world wide shipping people sigval bergesen d.y. yue kong pao helmut sohmen see also category bw group retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bw group & oldid 730654075 categories bw groupshipping companies of norwayshipping companies of hong kongcompanies established in 20032003 establishments in norwaygas shipping companiesfloating production storage and offloading vessel operatorshidden categories articles lacking sources from july 2016all articles lacking sources navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage 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