It has purchased the DP-1 capable AHTS for $12m in conjunction with Atlantic Venture, a company in which it owns 51% that was set up last month in the British Virgin Islands with an authorised share capital of $4m.
The Atlantic group will have an exclusive contract to manage the vessel for three years. Automatic annual renewal of the contract will follow subject to key terms being revised and mutually agreed between it and Venture.
The vessel is to be deployed on a short-term charter immediately upon arrival in the UAE in early January 2015.
Separately, the group has secured extensions for the charter of its jack-up accommodation barge, which is supporting an oil company’s offshore activities in Abu Dhabi, and an AHTS working in Africa.
The contracts have been extended for one year, at an aggregate value of some $18m, with an option to extend for one more year. Extensions would bring the total potential contract value to about $33m.
The investment in Venture was funded by a combination of Atlantic’s internal resources and bank borrowings. The company says it is not expected to have a material impact on the group’s consolidated net tangible assets per share and earnings per share for the year ending 31 December 2014.
The new AHTS-DP1 vessel was Atlantic’s fourth addition to its fleet in the 2014 financial year, and the group now owns, operates, and charters a fleet of 16 offshore support vessels.
