With offshore oil and gas percolating and offshore support vessel supply tight, Vroon’s plans to sell off its 40-vessel fleet as part of its restructuring could lead to fierce competition among potential buyers
“The sale and purchase market will welcome the news, particularly within the PSV sector where the number of working units available for sale has been very tight”, VesselsValue head of offshore Robert Day told OSJ. “Also, Vroon have stated they will sell the vessels over a period of 18 months, so it should be a controlled process”. Importantly, noted Mr Day, all of Vroon’s OSVs are in active and in working condition, limiting requirements for significant capex from any potential buyer.
But potential buyers should not be expecting to pay bargain basement prices for the fleet of OSVs, which include platform supply vessels, anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessels and even service operation vessels (SOVs), warned Mr Day.
“By virtue of timing, Vroon is selling their assets into a firming market and even though these are technically bank-driven sales, we don’t expect them to sell at highly distressed levels or have a negative impact on asset prices”, he said. This was the case with most offshore bank-driven sales during the worst part of the prolonged offshore downturn. He noted there is particular interest in PSVs.
The PSV units are basically two main types, the Ulstein PX121 design units and the smaller 600-m2-700-m2 deck area units, both of which both have applications in the major operating regions and outside of traditional oil and gas.
He expects Vroon’s AHTS fleet to draw strong interest from potential buyers in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Far East and West Africa.
“The overall specification of the fleet suggests we could see a Middle Eastern powerhouse take everything (or at least take the AHTS units). But don’t underestimate buyers looking to do smaller en bloc deals especially when the market is so tight. In any case, the sales process is already generating serious interest so the competition could be fierce”, said Mr Day.
As of mid-January, valuations for the AHTS fleet are about US$83M, PSV fleet around US$187M and SOVs about US$60M, he noted.
SOVs on the block?
Because SOVs come on the secondhand market so infrequently, Mr Day said 2017-built VOS Start and VOS Stone could attract strong demand from “buyers looking to move into or further expand their renewables fleet if they are confirmed by Vroon as sales candidates”.
Norway’s DOF, currently undergoing restructuring, could be another potential source of quality tonnage coming onto the S&P market, but that situation is less clear.
“The story is less than straightforward, with DOF’s lenders continuing to push forward with restructuring plans despite rebel shareholders installing a new board of directors to stop the debt-to-equity swap”, said Mr Day. “Many buyers will be waiting, hoping DOF’s assets come for sale as they are modern, well-built and versatile. But only time will tell on this, and it is unlikely any decision will be made in the short term”, he concluded.
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Mr Day will be one of the featured speakers at the Annual Offshore Support Journal Conference, Awards & Exhibition in London, 8-9 February 2023. For more details on the programme for OSJ Week and to register your interest, please click here.
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