Offshore vessel owner New World Supply has sold four of its remaining platform supply vessels to an undisclosed buyer.
Standard Drilling, owner of 34.4 percent shares in NWS, said on Monday that NWS had completed a sale, “with a well-known and reputable counterparty,“ of its remaining four medium-sized platform supply vessels (PSVs).
The vessels previously owned by now-defunct World Wide Supply company, have been in lay-up in Norway since October and November 2016.
The vessels in question are “World Diamond”, “World Peridot”, “World Pearl” and “World Opal”, all built in 2013 by the Dutch shipbuilder Damen. NSW last year sold the World Sapphire and World Emerald PSVs.
“The transaction is completed and the purchased price has been fully paid for all four vessels…The transaction is done at a level that reflects higher vessel value compared to [Standard Drilling’s] book value and significantly higher than the acquisition price of the shares in New World Supply Ltd purchased by [ Standard Drilling ] . NWS and its subsidiaries now have cash holdings only and no vessels,” Standard Drilling said, without actually revealing the price. VesselsValue website estimates the total value of the four vessels to be around $32 .24 million.
Standard Drilling said: “[Standard Drilling] has previously highlighted that it will take advantage of opportunities that may appear. Further [Standard Drilling’s] has stated that it considered its holding in NWS as a financial investment. Consequently, the sale of these vessels, at a significantly higher price than the purchase price, is in line with [Standard Drilling’s] strategy.”
Martin Nes , Chairman of the Board in Standard Drilling said: “This transaction is in line with our expectations of an increase of the value of our fleet. The sale of vessels is done at higher levels compared to the two vessels sold in October 2018. Further, this transaction is evidence of the fact that the company’s purchase price of shares in New World Supply was done at highly attractive levels. The company’s ultimate strategy is to create shareholder value. This transaction supports this strategy.”
Standard Drilling now has h 100% ownership of five large-size modern PSVs. In addition, the company has invested in 9 mid-size PSVs, bringing the total fleet of partly and fully owned vessels to 14 PSVs, including one vessel on a bare-boat contract.
Offshore Energy Today Staff