Seacor Marine has acquired three new vessels in a ships-for-shares deal.
The Louisiana-based offshore company will receive three fast support vessels (FSV) from the McCall family — whose patriarch, Normal McCall, merged his company with Seacor in the 1990's.
Seacore is using 603,872 shares to fund the transaction. At the open, Friday, Seacor Marine shares were trading at $12.87.
"We are excited to expand our FSV fleet, a core asset segment for SEACOR Marine," said chief executive John Gellert.
"FSVs have become an integral component of the logistics chain for offshore drilling and production operations due to their speed and versatility. Further, they have weathered the industry downturn remarkably well,"
He added: "On a personal note, I deeply appreciate the support provided to SEACOR Marine by the McCall family.
"Norman McCall pioneered the development of aluminum vessels in the oilfield and our innovations in this segment would not have been possible without the contributions of him and his family."
For the last decade, Seacor has been operating the ships, along with four other FSVs, in a revenue sharing pooling agreement.
The deal brings the number of FSVs in Seacor's fleet to 20. All but three are currently under contract and 14 are working internationally.
The company said the acquisition will allow it to eliminate a negative adjustment to its revenue valued at $2.4m per year, as the pooling agreement is terminated.
