International shipping company Stolt-Nielsen SA (SNSA) intends to move its domicile to Bermuda from Luxembourg.

The company's board is urging shareholders to back the proposed move to the Island in an extraordinary general meeting to be held on November 16.

"The proposed move is intended to enable SNSA and its shareholders to continue to benefit from a legal structure similar to that which SNSA has experienced as a holding company in Luxembourg since 1974," the company said in a statement on Friday.

SNSA company employs more than 5,000 staff in 33 offices around the world, and is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

The company describes itself as one of the world's leading providers of globally integrated transportation services for bulk liquid chemicals, edible oils, acids, and other specialty liquids. One of its subsidiaries, Stolt Sea Farm, also produces and markets turbot, sturgeon, sole and caviar.

The transaction will be structured so that SNSA and a recently formed Bermuda company (initially owned by SNSA) will merge with and amalgamate with each other and the combined company, named Stolt-Nielsen Ltd., will continue as an exempted company in Bermuda.