Aage Remoy is starting afresh in Norway’s offshore sector before the ink is even dry on the shareholder approvals that formalised his exit from the direct control of offshore support vessels (OSVs).
Remoy has launched In Nord Vest, a company that has no debt and NOK 500m ($61.4m) in cash allocated for investments in the crisis-stricken offshore sector.
The move comes after Remoy was, in effect, forced out of the sector, when his shipowning company, Rem Offshore, was snatched up in a surprise move by Kjell Inge Rokke’s Aker.
The nature of Remoy’s renewed involvement in the OSV sector is largely undecided but is intended to be highly flexible. This could be through some type of close co-operation with struggling Norwegian owners, or with pure investments, or could even end up with In Nord Vest taking direct ownership of vessels, Remoy tells TradeWinds.
“The picture here in our area is that almost every company is restructuring, so we can either co-operate with some present owners or we can start up on our own again. The road becomes clear as you walk it so we will just have to see what comes,” said Remoy.
The Rem Offshore founder and former chairman revealed the launch of In Nord Vest last Monday. Symbolically, it was the same day that shareholders approved the merger of Rem Offshore with Solstad Offshore at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM).
Rokke’s Aker bought up “negative control” in one of Rem’s bonds and then was able to stop Remoy’s hard-fought restructuring plan, ultimately forcing that merger with Solstad.
“By all means, I felt pushed out. What Aker did was an ambush. With the plan that we had, we would have been able to stay alive for three or four years,” said Remoy. “When it turned out like it did, starting up new is my only option.”
Heavyweight opposition
Apart from Rokke, also waiting in the sector’s wings are Norwegian heavyweights, such as John Fredriksen and especially Kristian Siem, who has made his desire for consolidation clear.
In many quarters in Norway, the fusion of Rem’s 18 ships with Solstad’s 43-strong fleet has been viewed as an extremely positive development for the nation’s heavily fragmented OSV sector.
However, the consolidation goals of Fredriksen, Rokke and Siem have been received as decidedly more negative among several of the west-coast owners, as TradeWinds has reported recently.
Those owners, such as Island Offshore, are not alone. Among the west-coast yards, equipment makers and offshore industry bodies TradeWinds has spoken with, there has been open concern that wide OSV consolidation could result in the disappearance of offshore owners from the communities and small coastal towns.
These owners are said to have served as the very heart of Norway’s offshore operation over the years and are viewed as having driven the development of the world-leading cluster, not least by placing vessel orders at Norwegian yards.
Remoy’s new company name “In Nord Vest” is a Norwegian play on words, combining “invest” and “northwest”. This partly points to some of his main motives for starting up again.
He says one of his main goals is to keep OSV shipowning alive on the west coast of Norway,
especially near his small hometown of Fosnavaag, which has six well-known OSV owners controlling about 100 ships.
“We want to have local ownership and local decisions made. We don’t want remote control from Fornebu or Skudeneshavn,” said Remoy, referring to the headquarters of Aker and Solstad, respectively.
“For the cluster to survive, it is extremely important to preserve the skill, the competence and the shipping environment that exists on this coast today. To do that, we need to have strong owners around here, otherwise I think we shall lose it.”
Investment targets
In terms of seeking out former local competitors to receive investments from In Nord Vest, Remoy declines to list any targets by name. He also declines to comment on whether he is open to investing in his brother Stig’s offshore company, Olympic Shipping. There has been some friction between the siblings over the years.
“If the present owners are willing to co-operate with me, then I am ready to speak with absolutely anyone,” said Remoy, stressing again that a main goal is to “keep local ownership on the west coast”.
Remoy also sees no conflict of interest with his 15% shareholding in Solstad, which he says comes with only about “8% or 9%” voting rights via his B-class shares. He is represented but does not sit on the Solstad board.
The other In Nord Vest investors come from fishing backgrounds. They are former Rem board member Torsteinn Mar Baldvinsson, who owns Samherji of Iceland, and Swedish fishing man Magnus Roth, who sold his stakes in Norebo Holdings earlier this year.
“At the moment I have two investors with me but, taking into consideration all the offshore companies that are in need of restructuring on the west coast, it will take much more money than what we have now,” said Remoy.
“There are so many who need money. NOK 500m sounds like a lot but in the big picture it is not that much.”
Remoy indicates that it is “impossible to say” how much money will eventually be needed to rescue owners, given the complexity of the restructuring process and whether banks take haircuts. But he believes there is a stockpile of cash in at least one local Norwegian industry.
“There is a lot of money in the fishing industry so if they want to use part of it in the offshore business, it would make a difference,” said Remoy, pointing out that now is a good time to invest.
“I am sure we are quite close to the bottom of the market. You may have to wait three years for a return on the investment but there will be a good return eventually.”
