US oil service group National Oilwell has sold its 36% stake in Norwegian ship crane manufacturer TTS Marine, which is listed on the Oslo stock exchange. The shareholding was acquired in 2002 when it took over the Norwegian offshore crane builder Hydralift but supplying cranes and materials handling equipment to shipbuilders is not National Oilwell’s core business.

As a consequence of the sale, National Oilwell’s Byron Dunn and Birger Skeie have resigned from the board of TTS Marine and vice chairman Einar Pedersen has been elected to take over as chairman, in place of Dunn. Pedersen is the founder of TTS, which has an annual turnover of about $130m and has subsidiaries in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Poland, the USA and China.

In November TTS won a $15m contract to supply equipment to Norwegian shipbuilder Aker.