Borealis Maritime’s Aurora Offshore is bolstering its position in the offshore market through a shareholding and management deal with Siem Industries.
The Kristian Siem company’s Siem Offshore will transfer management of an owned fleet of nine offshore vessels to Aurora Offshore and will also acquire a shareholding in its fellow Norway-based company.
Siem is a known and vocal consolidator of the offshore space and has made the move with Aurora just a few months after exiting what was then Oslo-listed Siem offshore after a split with Christen Sveaas.
Aurora Offshore chief executive Steve Brackenridge called the deal “a significant milestone” aimed at building a major global offshore support vessel operator.
Kristiansand-based Aurora Offshore’s fleet will rise to 28 vessels as a result of the deal.
This comprises two offshore construction vessels, one multipurpose platform supply vessel, six anchor-handling tug supply vessels and 19 platform supply vessels.
“These additional vessels will allow Aurora Offshore to enter the subsea market as well as enhance our current AHTS and PSV fleet,” Brackenridge said.
The combined fleet will directly or indirectly employ around 950 seafarers.
The handover of the management of the Siem Offshore-owned vessels from Oslo-listed Sea1 Offshore is scheduled to be completed by April 2025.
The transaction involves offshore ships that the company, formerly known as Siem Offshore Inc, sold in April to a private Siem company in a transaction that saw the departure of then chairman Kristian Siem.
That left fellow Norwegian tycoon Christen Sveaas under the control of Siem Offshore Inc, which subsequently changed its name to Sea1 Offshore.
Siem Industries has since re-established the Siem Offshore AS brand with the nine vessels.
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Siem Industries chief operating officer Kenneth Ross said: “We are looking forward to working together with the team at Aurora Offshore, in partnership with Borealis Maritime and firmly believe in the shared vision for a high-quality offering.”
The ships included in the latest deal comprise the offshore subsea construction vessels Siem Stingray (built 2013) and Siem Barracuda (built 2014).
Others are the 29,000-bhp AHTS vessels Siem Opal (built 2011), Siem Pearl (built 2009) and Siem Topaz (built 2010); and the 5,500-dwt PSVs Siem Thiima (built 2016), Siem Pilot (built 2010), Siem Symphony and Siem Pride (both built 2014).
Borealis Maritime founder and chief executive Christoph Toepfer said: “We are pleased to reach this agreement with Siem Offshore for the management of our respective OSV fleets.”
“Credit goes to Aurora Offshore’s management team to have built a very professional and highly respected OSV management company over the past three years,” he said.
Aurora Offshore has been steadily expanding its fleet, acquiring vessels from sources including the holdings of Greek tycoon Evangelos Marinakis.
In September, the company took over full management of a third PSV owned by Marinakis, the 3,500-dwt Ace Kristiansand (built 2005), according to its fleet list.
In August, Aurora said it had sealed a deal to operate two PSVs for the shipowner’s newly formed Capital Offshore Ship Management Corp in Piraeus.
The ships were the large 5,200-dwt pair Ace Supplier and Ace Viking (both built 2007).
