A posse of keen buyers has been whittled down to three in the race to acquire two subsea newbuildings being sold by a Chinese yard as a result of the bankruptcy of Greece's Toisa.
TradeWinds is told up to 15 potential bidders had been circulating around the 97-metre inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) units Toisa Resolute and Toisa Reveille, which are now nearly complete at Qingdao Wuchuan Heavy Industry Co.
But a shortlist of buyers has now emerged, featuring Norwegian shipowner Kristian Siem, Havila Shipping backers the Saevik family and Fredrik Remoy-founded Rem Offshore.
The two subsea vessels were ordered in 2015 at $55m each, probably $5m less than it would have cost in Europe, although one source said they will likely end up costing the yard $60m to build anyway.
The contracts for what have been described as "attractive vessels" were torn up in June.
Subsea values strengthening
The likely price for the vessels, which are due for delivery this month and in May 2019, is only $45m each, indicating a 25% drop from the construction cost.
But this shows a strengthening of prices in the secondhand subsea sector, where deals have been done up to 40% below the build value.
Kristian Siem is said to have lined up a charter for the ships to Subsea 7, of which he is chairman.
Representatives of all three potential buyers have been contacted for comment.
'Haircut to be had'
An offshore support vessel source told TradeWinds that the deal could be seen as "the first milestone marking a turnaround in the market. There is a haircut to be had on the ships".
"It is impressive that the players can raise the finance," the source said. "But it is notable that it is private companies involved. Havila would find it impossible to raise that money due to banking restrictions after its restructuring."
A decision by the yard on a buyer could be made before the end of the year.
In 2015, TradeWinds reported the units as offshore construction vessels, with support functions for remotely operated vehicles.
Designed by relative Norwegian newcomer Salt Ship Design, the vessels were to have 1,100 square metres of deck space, dynamic positioning two, accommodation for 100 personnel and hangar space for two ROVs.
They will each have two expensive active heave compensated cranes — one of 150-ton capacity with 3,000-metre reach and an auxiliary crane with 25-ton capacity with 2,000-metre reach.
In October, buyers — including Navieros del Golfo and Micoperi — were found for six OSVs formerly controlled by the Gregory Callimanopulos-led company.
The six units consisted of two diving support vessels, three platform supply vessels and one well-testing vessel.
Kristian Siem has previously made his OSV consolidation ambitions clear, but failed to pull off a deal to take over Farstad Shipping before it was merged into Solstad Offshore last year.
