Dockwise Votes Against Fairstar’s Share Issuance Proposal

Fairstar Heavy Transport N.V.  hosted an Extraordinary Meeting of Shareholders today in Rotterdam. The purpose of the Meeting was to approve the issue of 30 million shares in Fairstar for the purposes of constructing an additional 50,000 DWT semi-submersible ship identical in specification to FORTE and FINESSE.

Purchase price of the vessel is USD 110 million. Under the terms of the agreement negotiated with Guangzhou Shipbuilding International, the ship was to be delivered in Q4 2013.

Fairstar’s compatriot and a rival Dockwise, which owns 54 per cent controlling interest in Fairstar, has voted against the share issue. As a result, the resolution has failed.

Frits van Riet, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, commented: “Our Management Team has successfully built the most valuable order book in the marine heavy transport industry today. We have been awarded high value, multi-voyage contracts for Gorgon, Ichthys and Golden Eagle by clients who demand modern, open-stern, semi-submersible vessels and the crews and project management support required to deliver safe and reliable transportation of energy infrastructure assets. Fairstar has made a compelling case for investing in an additional “FORTE class” ship. We are deeply disappointed that Dockwise continues to commit themselves whenever possible to disrupting our strategy and de-stabilizing our Company.”

On May 15, 2012, Dockwise launched a mandatory offer for all the issued and outstanding shares of Fairstar Heavy Transport N.V. (“Fairstar”) at a price of NOK 9.30 per Fairstar share. A day after the offer was made, Fairstar management replied that the  financial proposal received from Dockwise was of no interest to Fairstar.

Referring to the matter Fairstar’s Chairman today said: “Fairstar is currently preparing a formal response to the Dockwise Offer Document. We intend to publish our response on June 5th.”

Dockwise was unavailable for a comment.

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Offshore Energy Today Staff, June 1, 2012