Local authorities in Oslo are preparing to auction disputed minority shares in Arne Blystad-controlled Offshore Heavy Transport (OHT) after seven years in suspense, sources tell TradeWinds.
Bergen-based shipowner Spar Shipping, which has the OHT shareholding of China's HNA Group under legal arrest, set the auction process in motion in late 2018. Now Norwegian court officials will be in charge of selecting a third-party administrator to find a buyer for the shares.
"It's a matter of weeks or months, not days," said one source directly acquainted with the process.
Both OHT chief executive Torgeir Ramstad and Spar chief executive Jarle Ellefsen declined to comment on the matter as it involves an ongoing legal action.
TradeWinds reported last week that HNA's other big Norwegian shipping investment, containership owner SinOceanic Shipping, is in the process of selling assets in order to return equity to financially troubled HNA.
Blystad involvement
OHT's former minority shareholder, the Blystad Group, today indirectly controls about 80% of shares in the semi-submersible heavylift company. It is unknown whether Blystad intends to acquire the 20% of shares to be auctioned.
OHT owns a fleet of five semi-submersible ships on the water, with four more units specialised for offshore wind installation now on order at China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) Jiangsu in Haimen, China.
The history of HNA's shareholding in OHT has been complicated by restructurings and legal battles.
The original OHT was set up in Oslo by Blystad, which sold a 60% shareholding to HNA subsidiary Grand China Logistics (GCL) in 2010 for a reported $150m. That deal included an option to sell the remaining 40% to GCL for a further $100m.
But Blystad gained back control of the company in 2012 as a result of HNA's failure to perform on Blystad's put option.
At the time, GCL was under legal attack from multiple dry bulk shipowners over numerous large charter default claims. One of these adversaries, Spar, arrested the OHT shares in 2012.
Auctioning of shares
But following a 2014 reorganisation, the original OHT was renamed Lotus Marine and was left with one-third of shares in a new OHT. Lotus' shareholding retained the original 60:40 percentage split between GCL and Blystad vehicle Spencer Finance, but with the GCL shares still under arrest by Spar.
The 20% shareholding to be auctioned is, thus, in effect HNA’s 60% of Lotus’ 33.33% interest in the current OHT entity.
TradeWinds reported in August last year after Spar's most recent annual results that its board of directors pledged to continue to pursue the claim against its Chinese counterparty and the "parties that are behind them”.
Spar's principal claim over the 2011 redelivery of three supramaxes on three to five-year time charters is understood to have amounted to $25.3m, but annual interest of more than 8% since then is understood to have brought the amount to closer to $40m.
