In early September, RINA announced its acquisition of the entire share capital of Logimatic Solutions, a leading software company, headquartered in Denmark. The company, with a turnover of about 6 million euros, will be fully integrated within the RINA Group and its nearly 50 employees will continue in the current structure from its offices in Denmark, Singapore and Chile. Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide (www.hellenicshippingnews.com) interviewed RINA’s CEO, Mr. Ugo Salerno regarding this strategic move and its importance in the overall growth of the company.

Do you expect digital offerings to be the main driver of growth among classification societies in general?

The acquisition of Logimatic aligns with RINA’s strategic plan and provides an opportunity to substantially boost the company’s first-rate knowledge of digital solutions, providing support to customers for efficient and sustainable business operations.
Digitalisation forms one of the key pillars in RINA’s strategy and is a core component within the RINA business, both in terms of internal capability and the services provided to the customer base.
The expertise gained from Logimatic Solutions represents a step forward in the expansion of RINA’s offering capability.

How are you planning to take advantage of the popular solution of SERTICA Fleet Management Software, with regards to existing and future clients and overall market share?

The acquisition adds SERTICA to the RINA portfolio of maritime offerings. SERTICA is the powerful fleet management solution, which integrates a wide range of functions, modules and features for all areas of maritime business, incorporates fleet maintenance, procurement management and HSQE modules to provide deeper insights into fleet operations, enabling effective monitoring, control and cost savings.The SERTICA Fleet Management Software has an excellent reputation and is already installed on over 1400 vessels worldwide. It extends our capabilities and is a powerful and beneficial addition to the tools we already provide to our customers in the maritime industry.

Will this move also open new markets and enable RINA to attract more clients for its own digital maritime offerings?

The acquisition provides RINA with highly rated personnel with combined market, technical and IT expertise. This places the business in a stronger position in the northern European area to complement its already leading position in the South of the continent.
RINA plans to hire 1500 new staff members in the next 2-3 years across all businesses. Agreements like the one with Logimatic will form a key part of the company’s continued growth.

How does the acquisition of Logimatic Solutions align with RINA’s overall strategy in the domain of digitalization?

Collaboration between classification societies will be essential in meeting our lofty renewable energy targets and, of course, meeting digital transformation objectives. We will need to use all types of technology to meet our targets and collaboration will help drive this adaptation, this is an area we can’t afford to compete in.
A key facet of RINA’s agenda is to digitalise its output, moving many of the areas that would traditionally be paper based and making these digital.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide