Solstad Offshore has revealed that a restructuring dispute with investor Christen Sveaas was based partly on a high fleet valuation by UK shipbroker Clarksons.
The Oslo-listed shipowner this week completed its NOK 13.2bn ($1.3bn) refinancing with a mix of NOK 4bn in equity issued mostly to Kjell Inge Rokke’s Aker Capital and a NOK 9.7bn loan from DNB and Export Finance Norway.
The agreement was announced in October, but by December had attracted criticism from Sveaas, who through his Kistefos investment company had filed a letter requesting a shareholder meeting to take legal action against Solstad insiders.
Solstad has now said in a letter to shareholders that Kistefos was incorrect to say the refinancing was not based on the ships’ market value.
The shipowner called Clarksons’ assessments “theoretical” and claimed they assumed the entire fleet could be sold ship by ship at full value, “without regard to the specific sales situation, without regard to the time available and without regard to the fact that a sale of the entire fleet would depress ship values”.
“These are unrealistic assumptions that cannot be used as a basis,” Solstad wrote.
Clarksons declined to comment.
Solstad argued that the decisive factor in the valuation had to be the terms and alternatives that were available to the company in the market at the time the refinancing was agreed upon.
The owner said it obtains value estimates throughout the year and has a good overview of these at all times.
In the summer of 2023, assessments were available for all of the group’s vessels from four different shipbrokers.
The average of the valuations by Norwegian shops Fearnleys, Pareto Shipbrokers and Seabrokers was NOK 20.1bn, but Clarksons came in at NOK 24.7bn — almost 25% higher.
Actual sale prices lower
Sale prices observed in the market also suggested that Clarksons’ valuations were too high, Solstad said.
During the autumn of 2023, two of Havila Shipping’s anchor-handler tug supply vessels were sold at prices 25% below Clarksons’ valuations of comparable units, the shipowner claimed.
The average of the Solstad valuation from Fearnleys, Pareto Shipbrokers and Seabrokers was NOK 14.2bn on 30 September 2023, which was almost NOK 3bn lower than the NOK 17.1bn that Kistefos claimed.
“A realistic sale scenario was that prices would be pushed down so far that the sale proceeds would not have covered the secured debt, and leaving no remaining value for the shareholders,” Solstad said.
It added that discussions with Kistefos were continuing.
