France's offshore vessel giant Bourbon Maritime has exited court restructuring with €1.5bn ($1.83bn) less debt, but with plans to sell or scrap more than 100 ships.
The company is now owned by its French lenders after they took over the company in a debt to equity swap last December, leaving former principal Jacques de Chateauvieux with no stake in the outfit after years of losses in tough markets.
The recovery plan and a "conciliation protocol" signed with all creditors were validated on 14 December by the Commercial Court of Marseilles.
"This decision allows to put an end to the reorganisation proceedings and completes the financial and capital restructuring of the group by the end of the year," the company added.
Bourbon's plan is to transform its business models towards more integrated services, as well as digitalising the fleet, making it possible to improve operational performance and cut ship operating costs and CO2 emissions.
Big cull coming
The target for the fleet at the end of 2021 will be less than 350 vessels, compared to 458 now.
A Bourbon spokeswoman told TradeWinds that roughly half the fleet is offshore support vessels and half crew boats.
"Concerning OSVs, we have in fact already sold several tens of vessels throughout 2020 and we plan to continue on the same pace in 2021," she said.
"We are in discussion with several partners and potential buyers."
Most of the vessels to be sold are traditional, older platform supply vessels and anchor-handling tug supply units, operating in uncompetitive markets.
Uneconomical crew boats will also be offloaded or scrapped.
VesselsValue assesses 208 operational OSVs as worth $830m.
The spokeswoman added that Bourbon's recovery through providing more integrated services is "not necessarily vessel-centric".
Debt mountain reduced
Debt has been cut from €2.65bn to €1.06bn, including €228m in bonds redeemable for shares.
These have been issued by Societe Phoceenne de Participations, the company formed by the lenders to buy 100% of Bourbon.
The bonds are potentially convertible into shares by the end of 2021, depending on market conditions.
The balance sheet is now strengthened and the agreement provides for new financing of up to €150m repayable over three years, Bourbon said.
New shareholders have taken a stake alongside the original banking group consisting of BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Credit Mutuel, BPCE and Societe Generale.
These five lenders will keep a majority stake, but China's ICBC Financial Leasing and UK-based Standard Chartered Bank will take 18% and 10%, respectively.
The other creditors who have agreed to convert part of their debt into capital will hold the rest of the capital.
A major step
Bourbon chairman Gael Bodenes will now become CEO as well.
He said in a statement: "The end of the reorganisation proceedings with the restructuring of our debts is a major step in the transformation of the group."
He stressed the decisive contribution of the shareholders and creditors, and thanked customers who continued to support and trust the firm.
"Finally, I would particularly like to thank the Bourbon teams who, for the past three years, have worked together to overcome the economic and health difficulties that our industry continues to face," the chairman added.
The idea now is to accelerate the strategic action plan, both in terms of overhauling the operational and commercial structure, and deploying new services.
In September, Bourbon said it had entered into exclusive talks to offload its coastal rescue, towing and salvage business Les Abeilles to domestic "digital transformations" group Econocom.
The fleet totals six ships, including chartered-in salvage vessels.
Forced into filing
Bourbon sought the court-mandated restructuring process in July last year after ICBC signalled it would demand repayment of its debts in the ongoing oil and gas shipping slump.
ICBC has now sold six Bourbon-operated PSVs up for auction in China.
In February, Bourbon denied it would auction off 33 ships to US rival Tidewater.
The company was responding to US Securities and Exchange Commission filings from Tidewater's activist investor Bob Robotti, which said the Houston offshore giant had approved a plan to bid on the vessels should they go up for auction.
