Reconstituted Solstad Offshore reported its first earnings since Kjell Inge Rokke’s refinancing swoop.
The Oslo-listed company — which controls three anchor handling tug supply units and four construction support vessels following a post-refinancing split — reported a NOK 225m ($21m) profit for the first three months of 2024 on the back of NOK 768m in revenue.
“[The quarter] was characterised by continued high activity across segments and geographical regions and solid operational performance,” chief executive Lars Peder Solstad said.
The rest of Solstad Offshore’s ships, including 10 AHTS units and 21 construction support vessels, were put into the fleet of privately held Solstad Maritime, of which a Solstad Offshore subsidiary owns a 27% stake.
For the quarter, Solstad Maritime reported NOK 1.2bn in revenue and a NOK 128m profit and contributed NOK 15.8m to Solstad Offshore’s bottom line.
In the earnings release, Solstad said the beginning of each year is typically taken up by vessel maintenance, which dragged Solstad Offshore’s utilisation to 94%, entirely due to a drop-off in the use of its AHTS vessels. Solstad Maritime utilisation was 87%.
“This obviously affected the financial result in the quarter, but performance from the rest of the fleet has been good,” Solstad said, as the company reported high bidding activity in the first quarter and rising demand for its fleet.
The refinancing deal with Rokke’s Aker Capital announced in October totalled NOK 13.2bn, including a NOK 4bn tranche of equity primarily paid to Aker Capital, making it a 57% stakeholder in Solstad Maritime.
The companies still operate under a single brand and both are served by the same management companies.
“Hence, our clients, suppliers, cooperation partners and employees relate to [the Solstad companies] in the same way as before,” Solstad said.
Rokke and Solstad intend to take Solstad Maritime public, with a planned NOK 750m share issue, which allows Solstad Offshore shareholders to subscribe to shares at NOK 11.82 each.
The total issue will see 63.5m shares sold. Any unsubscribed shares will be allotted to Aker Capital.
