Olympic gets more time to complete restructuring

After getting support for a financial restructuring from key stakeholders, the Norwegian offshore vessel owner Olympic Ship has been granted an extended stand-still to complete the process. 

Olympic said on Saturday that, in order to provide further time to conclude and complete the restructuring, the company has been granted an extended stand-still from the secured lenders up to and including January 20, 2017.

After months of talks with creditors, the company had obtained support for the financial restructuring from all key stakeholders of the group on December 9. The restructuring will create a financial runway for the group through 2020, even in a low case scenario with limited or no utilization for the vessels without long-term contracts.

Through the restructuring, a new pure-play subsea company named Olympic Subsea will be created. The new company will be capitalized with new equity to be provided by existing owners of Olympic and new investors, and it will acquire 11 subsea vessels from Olympic Offshore. Olympics Offshore will become a subsidiary of Olympic Subsea.

The completion of the restructuring is subject to several terms and conditions, including an extraordinary general meeting of the company (EGM) and final documentation and agreements with the relevant stakeholders.

As part of this stand- still agreement announced on Saturday, the group will continue to pay interest to the finance providers and the secured lenders have agreed to postpone all amortization and maturities during the stand-still period.

“While Olympic is confident that the restructuring is the best available solution for all stakeholders and the group, there can be no guarantees that final approvals, agreements and documentation will be reached or consummated,” the company said.

The company has retained Fearnley Securities and EY as financial advisors and Wiersholm as legal advisor to assist the company in its process to address the contemplated long term financing solution of the Group.