Loss-making Danish offshore wind farm vessel company Ziton is examining a potential sale or merger of the business.

The Oslo-listed shipowner, with a fleet of four turbine maintenance units, has brought in US investment bank Evercore to explore growth options.

Strategic alternatives will be devised to focus on maximising shareholder value, Ziton added.

The company said in a statement that the board and key shareholder, private equity fund BWB Partners, are excited about future prospects.

This is due to "the acceleration of the renewable energy transition from both governments and the private sector", Ziton added.

Ziton chief executive Thorsten Jalk said the company would continue to focus on growth opportunities by leveraging scalable services.

There is no timetable for a solution and Ziton is not commenting further.

Ziton has a 50% share of the major component replacement (MCR) market for turbines in Europe.

The net loss in the second quarter was €1.5m ($1.8m), better than the €2.1m in red ink logged in the same period of 2020.

Financial expenses continued to weigh heavily, however, as revenue grew to €17.8m from €14.9m.

Activity levels were relatively strong in the first half, the company said.

"Our analysis shows that the increase is driven by turbines reaching an age of six to 10 years, where wear and tear increasingly seem to drive the need for component replacement," Ziton added.

Positive market to continue

This trend is expected to continue, the shipowner said.

Ziton is forecasting Ebitda of between €20m and €25m in the whole of 2021.

Last year, the company said it was raising $54.5m to buy a service operation vessel (SOV) for a wind farm contract with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) across Europe.

The charter will last for three years and eight months from 1 March 2021.

Ziton has a purchase option that it planned to declare for the 11,700-gt jack-up Wind Enterprise (built 2011), bareboat-chartered in from owner Enterprise Shipping.

The sale price was agreed at €42.5m.