Tax tonic

Norwegian shipping shares were on the march Friday morning after the nation’s owners scored a significant victory in a long-running battle over retrospective taxes.

Eidesvik Offshore, Farstad Shipping and Solstad Offshore were at the head of the pack, with rival Havila close behind.

Odfjell, which announced the ruling would bring a $110m equity boost, interrupted the offshore party to break into the all Norwegian top five on the TradeWinds shipping Index.

Wilh Wilhelmsen, Golar and Golden Ocean were also adding percentage points to their market value after the Supreme Court ruled the back tax was unconstitutional.

Eidesvik climbed by nearly a tenth to NOK 33.20 per share, ahead of Farstad, one of the key parties in the dispute, which shot up 8.30% this morning.

Solstad, which like the others saw its balance sheet dented after the tax plan was introduced in 2007, watched its share climb 8.06% to NOK 114.00 at the time of writing. Odfjell and Havila were up around 7.5% each, while Wilhelmsen’s share price increased by 5%.

Two John Fredriksen companies, Golar and Golden Ocean showed less dramatic results after this morning’s announcement, but still improved by over 3.5% each.

Friday's ruling could be worth around NOK 21bn ($3.5bn today) to the country's shipowners, three of whom had challenged the state's blanket imposition of taxes stretching back over 11 years.

The Court found that the 2007 move by Norway to charge the country's shipowners retrospective taxes was in breach of paragraph 97 of the Constitution.

A ruling by a lower court in Oslo in the summer of 2009 had found in favour of two shipowners - BW Gas and Farstad Shipping - declaring the tax as unconstitutional.

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