Norwegian vessel owner and operator Golden Energy Offshore Services (GEOS) is expanding the fleet of offshore supply vessels, thanks to a binding memorandum of agreements for the acquisition of four platform supply vessels (PSVs) and one safety & standby vessel (SSV) from subsidiaries of the Netherlands’ Vroon Holding, for a total consideration of $94 million.
ENERGY DUCHESS during her maiden call at Malta back to July 2019.
According to GEOS, this fleet acquisition ensures considerable accretive growth for its vessel fleet, increasing the firm’s ability to seize market opportunities within the oil and gas and offshore wind sectors going forward. The acquisition is expected to be completed around the end of September 2023 and a deposit of $9.4 million will be paid to Vroon in early August.
The four PSVs are of the same PX 121 design as GEOS’ existing fully-owned ENERGY DUCHESS and ENERGY EMPRESS vessels, providing flexibility in chartering as well as OPEX savings. On the other hand, the SSV VOS SUGAR is a versatile multi-purpose commissioning support vessel. With an SPS class for 40 persons, capacity for a walk-to-work gangway, and a small crane, it has been used in both the oil & gas and offshore wind markets
VOS SUGAR entering Grand Harbour, Malta during her delivery voyage from the Chinese Builders for Uplifting Bunkers back to March, 2016.
Golden Energy Offshore Services (GEOS) intends to finance this fleet acquisition through a combination of debt and new equity. To that end, the company revealed that funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management had given notification of its decision to exercise warrants for 57,773,761 shares – approximately 49.99 per cent of the outstanding share capital, fully diluted – at the exercise price of NOK 1.0 per share, providing the Norwegian firm with NOK 57.77 million ($5.7 million) in new equity.
