Maersk says the third quarter of 2017 was a defining one for the company, in which it found ‘solutions’ for Maersk Tankers and Maersk Oil. That just leaves Maersk Drilling and Maersk Supply Service to deal with.
Announcing details of a third quarter that saw revenue and underlying profit grow, driven by higher freight rates at Maersk Line, the container shipping unit on which it intends focus in future, the conglomerate said it had an underlying profit of US$248M, with an improvement of US$290M in transport and logistics and a decline of US$15M in energy, which includes Maersk Supply Service.
The company said the lower result in the energy segment compared to the same quarter last year was specifically related to Maersk Supply Service, which reported a loss of US$16M (compared to a loss of US$11M in the comparable quarter a year earlier) and a ROIC of negative 8.3% (negative 2.5%). The company’s operations continue to be adversely affected by market conditions in the global offshore industry.
“I am pleased with the agreements reached in Q3 for Total to acquire Mærsk Oil & Gas and AP Møller Holding to acquire Maersk Tankers, which indicates a solid progress in the separation of the energy businesses,” said Søren Skou, CEO of AP Møller – Mærsk. “Whilst solutions for Maersk Drilling and Maersk Supply Service remain to be defined before the end of 2018, the future Maersk will leverage even further its position of strength in transport and logistics.”
The company wants to find a structural solution for Maersk Supply Service by the end of 2018 and says that, in the separation process, economic value must be maximised for all shareholders, and AP Moller – Maersk must retain a strong capital structure and remain investment grade rated. “Finding structural solutions constituting the most optimal development opportunities for colleagues, capabilities and assets built into Maersk Drilling and Maersk Supply Service remain a key objective,” the company said.
Maersk Supply Service owns one of the most highly specified offshore vessel fleets in the world and has new anchor handlers and subsea support vessels on order. It has a fleet of around 40 vessels and around 1,000 seagoing personnel and around 200 onshore staff.
The report says, Maersk Supply Service reported a loss of US$1.2 billion in 2016 having been badly affected by oversupply and reduced long-term demand. The company suffered a massive US$1.2 billion worth of impairments in 2016.
Any party acquiring or merging with Maersk Supply Service would gain access to a modern, high quality fleet including the new-generation anchor handlers and subsea vessels, but would have to be fairly sizeable itself to have the financial and operational wherewithal to do so.
An outright sale might therefore be limited to a relatively small number of consolidators in the offshore industry, such as Kristian Siem’s offshore vessel companies or fellow Norwegian industrialist Kjell Inge Røkke, who led the merger between Solstad Offshore, Farstad, Rem Offshore and Deep Sea Supply. Both have expressed the belief that further consolidation is the way forward for the offshore support vessel industry.
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Source: Offshore Support Journal
