Solstad Offshore’s departure from the PSV segment will both help it in its refinancing efforts and to cope with the energy transition.
The Oslo-listed offshore outfit said on Friday that it has NOK 13.2bn ($1.2bn) in debt coming due in the first quarter of 2024 — a figure it slashed by more than $570m by selling its entire fleet of 37 PSVs to US owner Tidewater in March.
“This is a very important step for us as we will have our debt significantly reduced and put ourselves in a better position for the upcoming refinancing,” chief executive Lars Peder Solstad said on the company’s quarterly earnings call, adding that the deal would close at some point this month.
He said the PSVs were the lowest-margin vessels in the company’s stead and that they only worked in the oil and natural gas business.
The remaining fleet, made up of construction support vessels and anchor-handling tug supply ships, could work on oil and natural gas or renewable energy projects.
In the first quarter, Solstad said NOK 157m of the company’s NOK 583m Ebitda came from renewable energy projects, even as it has no ships purpose-built for the sector.
“The fleet we have now is very relevant to the ongoing energy transition,” he said.
For the first quarter, Solstad Offshore reported a profit of NOK 920m, reversing a NOK 59m loss from the first quarter of 2022, with Solstad describing the period as the best winter season in many years.
Revenue came in at NOK 1.4bn, up from NOK 882m year-over-year.
The company has a NOK 6.2bn contract backlog, with several new contracts and contract extensions globally, plus a letter of intent from an unnamed subsea contractor to take the 178-loa Normand Maximus (built 2016) on charter for more than a year and a new 7-year contract with Prysmian Powerlink for the 122-loa Normand Pacific (built 2010).
“All in all, a lot of fixing activity, a lot of tendering activity and a lot of opportunities for our anchor handlers and CSVs,” Solstad said.
