Shares in Samsung Heavy Industries have seen their biggest intraday decline in nine months as investors fear the company will not deliver John Fredriksen’s drillships on time.
The South Korean shipbuilder saw its stock fall as much as 7.3% on the Seoul Stock Exchange reflecting the delay concerns, according to Park Moo-hyun, analyst at Hana Financial Investment.
Fredriksen’s Seadrill is scheduled to take delivery of two 59,000-gt units in March.
A Samsung Heavy spokesman told Bloomberg the company had not received any request from Seadrill for delivery deferral.
Samsung Heavy agreed to delay the delivery of a drillship built for UK-based Ensco by two years, in late January.
As with all major South Korean shipyards, Samsung Heavy is trying to improve its financials and trimmed its operating loss for 2016 from KRW 1.5 trillion ($1.3bn) to KRW 147.2bn.
Seadrill has been contacted for comment over the possible delay of its drillships.
