Siem Offshore Slumps to Loss

Siem Offshore has seen its profits sink into the red for the first quarter 2015 on currency exchange losses.

The Oslo-listed company recorded net loss of $25.5 million compared to net profit of $17.7 million in the year-earlier period. The net loss attributable to shareholders was $25.6 million.

Namely, Siem booked currency exchange losses of $36.1 million on currency forward contracts, of which $27.3 million was unrealised, operation expenses of $77 million, administration expenses of $10 million and depreciation and amortisation of $26.7 million.

Furthermore, the company generated first-quarter 2015 operating revenues of $126.0 million, compared to $94.4 million for the same period in 2014, while the company reported operating loss of $24 million versus $28.6 million operating profit same time last year.

As for the Siem’s subsea division, the company had six OSCVs in operation at the end of the quarter. The OSCVs earned operating revenues of $30.4 million and had 98% utilisation.

In addition, Siem Offshore Contractors (SOC) generated gross revenues of USD41.0 million in first quarter 2015.

Siem’s total contract backlog of firm contracts for the Offshore Support Vessels segment at March 31, 2015 was $1.41 billion, including Big Orange XVIII, Secunda and the vessels under construction, while the Industrial Investments backlog segment at March 2015 was USD 166 million.

The company said it has nine vessels under construction and all vessels have secured debt-financing.