Norwegian offshore shipowner Olympic Ship AS says it has reached a restructuring and refinancing agreement that will enable the company to continue operations through the offshore market downturn.
The company said the agreement was reached by local investors and its principal shareholder Stig Remøy, and is accepted by secured lenders and bondholders. The three local investors include Seriana AS, Marin Group AS and Omega Maritime AS.
A key part of the agreement is to establish a new company, Olympic Subsea AS, which will acquire eleven modern subsea vessels from Olympic Ship through a NOK 400 million new equity issue. Five platform supply vessels and three ATHS will remain in the Olympic Ship fleet.
The agreement will bring the Olympic Ship’s total interest bearing debt down from NOK 5.5 billion to NOK 3.8 billion.
“We have achieved a long term and sustainable solution, safeguarding the main parts of our business and employees. As part of the solution, we will form a new entity in the Olympic family, with adequate funding to survive through the downturn in the market. This new company, Olympic Subsea AS, has been refinanced until the end of 2021,” says Olympic’s CEO Stig Remøy, who will become majority shareholder (70%) of the new company.
Unfortunately, Olympic Ship announced the sale of four vessels earlier this week to pay down debt. The sale was expected to make about 80 employees redundant.
“I regret that we are forced to discharge so many good employees, and we would really have wanted to avoid this situation. At the same time, we must accept that this solution enables us to keep the majority of our staff. This has been an important goal for us during the process, although we feel sorry for those colleagues who will not be part of the future Olympic,” says Remøy.
Olympic Ship AS first announced in July that they had started the process of finding permanent solutions for “the demanding financial situation following the difficult market situation.”
Prior to last week’s sale Olympic Ship AS owned a modern fleet of 22 offshore vessels, comprising 4 PSVs, 4 AHTS, 4 MPSV, 8 subsea vessels, and 2 offshore construction vessels. The fleet is managed by Olympic Shipping AS, both subsidiaries of Olympic Group.
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