Today, Subsea7 S.A. has officially announced in a press release that they have offered K&S Baltic Offshore (Cyprus) Ltd to buy their 50% share of Seaway Heavy Lifting Ltd.
Subsea7 already owns half of Seaway Heavy Lifting shares and is now planning to make Seaway Heavy Lifting one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. The specialist offshore contractor Seaway Heavy Lifting operates two heavy lift vessels with a workforce of around about 550 employees.
Jean Cahuzac, Subsea7 CEO believes the acquisition will “strengthen Subsea 7's position in businesses where we expect increased activity and opportunities for long term growth” as Seaway Heavy Lifting has strong expertise in “three areas of offshore activity: renewables, heavy lifting operations and decommissioning of oil and gas assets” which are all part of Subsea7 existing and future offshore contracts and activities.
Registered in Luxembourg with its headquarters in London in the United Kingdom, Subsea 7 is a big player in the offshore energy industry offering subsea engineering, construction and services.
Originally founded by the Norwegian Stolt-Niesen Group in 1970, Acergy became Stolt Offshore after a series of acquisitions including French Comex Services and Texan Ceinic Corporation. Subsea 7 was born out of several mergers between DSND Offshore AS, Halliburton Subsea, Subsea Offshore and Rockwater. The Acergy SA and Subsea7 Inc merger was completed in January 2011.
Whilst Seaway Heavy Lifting net assets were valued at $413 million (including a net debt of $4 million) in December 2015, Subsea7’s existing cash resources allow the company to offer an initial price of $279 million for 50% of Seaway Heavy Lifting share in addition to up to $40 million to be paid in the first quarter of 2021 on condition that the agreed performance targets are met.
