Nordic American Offshore posted heavy losses for the last three months of 2018 as the company's new management deals with lender issues and a lagging offshore sector.
The New York-traded company posted a $197.3m loss for the fourth quarter, while taking a $160.1m impairment charge for its entire 10-ship fleet.
The company also classified $136.5m of an outstanding, four-year-old revolving credit facility as a liability after a covenant breach.
Chief executive Emanuele Lauro, who took over in mid-December, said his company was in ongoing discussions with lenders and is looking to hash out a new long-term capital structure.
"We are making some difficult but necessary adjustments at NAO to position the company for the future. These include an impairment and the continued negotiations with our lenders for a sound and sustainable credit agreement," said chief executive Emanuele Lauro.
"At the same time, we are encouraged that activity and daily rates for PSV’s in the North Sea have increased markedly in the past month, indicating improved fundamentals and boding well for the remainder of 2019."
Lauro, also head of the Scorpio Group, took the reins from founder Herbjorn Hansson with a $5m private placement.
The move provided the offshore player with much-needed liquidity in the face of dwindling cash and mounting debt after a merger with Horizon Maritime was called off in the fall.
Nordic American Offshore has had issues with the debt facility going back to late 2016, running into issues with minimum equity value, equity ratio and minimum liquidity.
Despite attributing the impairment charge, in part, to "a market below our expectations," the company did report its highest utilization rates in at least a year, with seven of its 10 ships working in the fourth quarter.
This year, the company said it has fixed four vessels on multi-month charters, with a fifth in warm lay-up set to begin a year-long charter in the second quarter.
