Norway’s DOF Group has revealed its best-ever earnings just months after emerging from bankruptcy.
The offshore vessel owner said net profit was NOK 1.14bn ($107m) in the second quarter, up from a loss of NOK 1.28bn the year before.
Ebitda hit a record of NOK 1.35bn, up from NOK 851m in 2022, while revenue grew to NOK 3.1bn versus NOK 2.1bn.
DOF carried out an initial public offering (IPO) to relist in Oslo earlier this year after being taken over by its banks and bondholders.
Chief executive Mons Aase said: “The DOF Group’s strong operational result is mostly from subsea projects and improved earnings on new contracts.”
The performance of the platform supply vessel (PSV) fleet has been good, but variable for parts of the anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS) fleet in Brazil, he added.
The result has caused the owner to increase its Ebitda forecast for 2023 to between NOK 4.5bn and NOK 4.75bn, from NOK 4.2bn to NOK 4.7bn previously.
“Today we have approximately NOK 9bn in our backlog for execution in 2024. This gives good visibility for the earnings next year,” Aase said.
Net interest-bearing debt is now NOK 15.56bn.
The fleet of 55 ships achieved an average utilisation of 88%, up from 86% a year ago.
Margins, rates and vessel values have continued the positive trend seen in previous quarters, DOF said.
Three ships added to owned fleet
The group also revealed it had declared options to buy three ships it operates, the 26,140-bhp AHTS Skandi Hera (built 2009), the 27,940-bhp AHTS Skandi Iceman (built 2013) and the 94-loa subsea unit Skandi Darwin (built 2012).
All three were acquired at prices “significantly below market values,” the company added.
The order intake in the quarter was NOK 1.6bn.
The group said it is well-positioned towards floating wind installations due to its subsea and mooring competence and its advanced and flexible fleet.
“After the completion of the financial restructuring and the public offering, the group has established a stronger and viable financial platform and a simplification of the group’s financing structure,” DOF added. “It is now well-positioned to support further growth and to deliver on the group’s strategy.”
The company welcomed about 3,900 new shareholders in its IPO.
The most prominent of these was shipping tycoon John Fredriksen, who committed to buying $23m of shares, giving him a stake of about 5%.
DOF collapsed at the start of 2023 under the weight of $2.25bn in debt and its assets were spun down into a new company.
