Bourbon Maritime has reached an agreement with its creditors, enabling one of the largest offshore support vessel owners to come out of reorganisation proceedings
This agreement slashes €1.5Bn (US$1.8Bn) off Bourbon’s debt, leaving it with €1.065Bn (US$1.28Bn) still owed, compared with €2.648Bn (US$3.18Bn) before the financial reorganisation. Bourbon also received validation from all concerned creditors of the group for its recovery plan and the conciliation protocol.
This decision enables Bourbon to end its reorganisation proceedings and complete the financial and capital restructuring of the group by the end of Q4 2020. Restructuring will result in new shareholdings and €150M (US$180M) in new financing for three years.
Going forward, Bourbon’s strategic action plan will focus on transforming business models towards more integrated services and digitalising its OSV fleet enabling Bourbon to improve operations for customers, while gradually reducing vessel operating costs and CO2 emissions.
Bourbon will also resize its global fleet with a target of reducing this to less than 350 vessels by the end of 2021.
“The end of the reorganisation proceedings with the restructuring of our debt is a major step in the transformation of the group,” said Bourbon chairman Gaël Bodénès.
“I would like to stress the decisive contribution of our shareholders and our creditors.”
Mr Bodénès also thanked Bourbon teams and energy company support in the past three years when the company “worked together to overcome the economic and health difficulties the industry continues to face”.
He is looking ahead to 2021 when Bourbon will have reduced debt. “We can now accelerate the deployment of our strategic action plan, both in terms of overhauling our operational and commercial structure and in terms of deploying new services,” said Mr Bodénès. “We are ready to face the challenges of the industry, the team is more committed than ever to our clients.”
Creditors agreed for the conversion of €1.5Bn in debt to equity, significantly strengthening the group’s balance sheet. Creditors include banking groups BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel, BPCE and Société Générale.
ICBCL and Standard Chartered Bank will take stakes of around 18% and 10% respectively. Other creditors who have agreed to convert part of their debt will hold the rest of the capital.
Bourbon’s existing €1.065Bn of debt includes €228M (US$273M) in bonds redeemable for shares by the end of 2021, depending on market conditions.
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