Viking Supply Ships is disposing of its last remaining platform supply vessels, netting it $17.5m in cash.
The Christen Sveaas-backed offshore player said on Friday that it is tearing up management agreements for the 10,400-bhp Cooper Viking and Coey Viking (both built 2021) and exercising a put option on the Borealis Maritime-backed ownership companies.
Stockholm-listed Viking Supply Ships had owned 30% of each vessel, with funds owned by the UK’s Borealis Maritime holding the remainder.
The shares will be sold based on the market price of the two vessels as determined by two designated shipbrokers, the company said.
The move is expected to book Viking Supply Ships an $8.5m gain.
It leaves the company with six ships, all anchor-handling tug supply vessels.
According to VesselsValue, the company sold five PSVs in 2018.
The valuation service’s data shows the company making scant purchases over the past two decades: its most recent deal acquiring AHTS vessels from Solstad Offshore in a sale-and-leaseback transaction with Ocean Yield.
In its third-quarter earnings release, Viking Supply Ships chief executive Trond Myklebust called the normally strong summer season a disappointment, with lower utilisation and rates year over year.
The Cooper Viking and Coey Viking, the only two PSVs in the fleet for the period, lost SEK 1m ($96,000).
For the quarter, the company reported an SEK 5m loss, down from the SEK 30m profit a year earlier.
In midday trading on Friday, its shares were trading at SEK 97, up SEK 5.70, or 6.2%.
