Danish owner Ziton is embarking on a fundraising spree worth $54.5m to buy a service operation vessel (SOV) for a wind farm contract next year.
The company has been selected as the preferred supplier for a new long-term time charter contract with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) across Europe.
The charter will last for three years and eight months from 1 March 2021.
Ziton has a purchase option that it will declare for the 11,700-gt jack-up Wind Enterprise (built 2011), bareboat-chartered in from owner Enterprise Shipping.
The sale price has been agreed at €42.5m.
Bonds and stocks to be sold
Ziton will sell a fixed-interest bond worth €35m and issue €10m of shares to finance the deal.
Pareto Securities is the sole bookrunner for the bond sale, which has secured "very strong demand" from anchor investors already, Ziton said.
The Wind Enterprise will be employed on a fixed rate contract that includes coverage for variable costs like bunker and port expenses.
Securing ownership of the vessel is a pre-requisite of the Siemens contract.
Ziton said the ship will remain a key asset even after the SGRE contract ends, primarily due to its ability to service larger turbines.
Enterprise is expected to generate Ebitda in the range of €7 to €9m next year.
For 2022, this figure should be between €8.5m and €11.5m.
IPO explored
The company has two other bonds of €125m and €25m expiring in 2022 and 2023, listed in Oslo and Frankfurt.
In September, Ziton said it was working with "potential industrial and financial investors" to investigate the possibility of an initial public offering worth up to €100m to list on Oslo's Merkur Market.
The company has a fleet of four wind turbine maintenance ships.
Ziton is forecasting total revenue of between €59m and €65m for 2021 and 2022, with Ebitda expected to be in the €29m to €35m range.
The shipowner has also revealed that at the beginning of October one of its ships was temporarily quarantined due to a case of Covid-19. The financial impact was estimated at €2m.
