Swedish offshore vessel owner Viking Supply Ships has appointed two representatives from its controlling shareholder Kistefos to lead the company, naming Ulrik Mannhart as chief executive and current chairman Bengt Rem as group CEO.

Both appointments take effect on August 1, 2026. The leadership reshuffle follows the departure of Trond Myklebust, who resigned at his own request and will leave the company at the end of July. Myklebust had served as CEO of Viking Supply Ships since 2017.

Mannhart joined the Viking Supply Ships board in April 2026 and currently serves as an investment manager at Kistefos. Prior to that role, he spent two and a half years at Hayfin Capital Management, where he focused on shipping and offshore drilling investments. His earlier experience includes positions covering shipping, offshore, and energy sectors at Fearnley Securities and Nordea.

Rem has served as chairman of Viking Supply Ships since 2016 and has been chief executive of Kistefos since 2015. Before joining the Christen Sveaas-controlled investment group, he led Arctic Partners and held several senior positions at Aker.

The appointments place both top executive roles in the hands of representatives from Viking Supply Ships' majority owner. According to the company's latest published ownership disclosure, Kistefos held 80.1% of the shares and 85.3% of the voting rights. For a company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, such concentration of ownership and operational control in a single investor is uncommon and effectively eliminates the possibility of minority shareholders blocking strategic decisions.

Viking Supply Ships, headquartered in Kristiansand, Norway, operates a fleet of offshore and ice-class vessels serving the offshore oil and gas and renewable energy sectors. The company is publicly traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker VSS. The offshore support vessel sector has seen renewed fleet renewal and consolidation activity as operators reinvest in modern tonnage following years of restrained ordering.

In addition to the leadership changes, Viking Supply Ships has been expanding its ice-class anchor-handler fleet. Earlier this year, the company acquired the 2019-built vessel Maersk Maker from Kistefos. The vessel was renamed Tor Viking and fitted with a launch and recovery system before entering the North Sea market. That transaction, conducted with the company's own majority shareholder, illustrates the existing flow of assets between Kistefos and Viking Supply Ships that the new leadership structure may further facilitate.