VARD Broadens Losses in Q3

Vard Holdings Limited (VARD) continues to face slowdown in activity at its yards on the back of continued weakness in the offshore market, and operational issues at its Brazilian facilities.

VARD recorded a net loss of NOK 845 million for 3Q2015, against a loss of NOK 160 million in the corresponding period the year before respectively.

VARD’s revenue came in at NOK 2.27 billion in 3Q2015, representing a 19% decline from 3Q2014.

EBITDA before restructuring cost fell into negative territory with a loss of NOK 467 million for 3Q2015, compared to a positive NOK 46 million in the preceding quarter.

During 3Q2015, order book development picked up from the previous period (“2Q2015”), with four new vessel contracts secured by the Group. New order intake, including variation orders, equipment sales, as well as repair and conversion works, grew from NOK 956 million to NOK 1,436 million quarter-on-quarter.

This brings VARD’s total order book value to NOK 14.01 billion as at 30 September 2015. Currently, VARD has an order book of 31 vessels, of which 18, or 58%, will be of its own design.

VARD said that in order to mitigate the effects of slowing yard utilisation, the Group will continue to explore cost reduction and efficiency improvement programs across all entities.

Roy Reite, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of VARD, commented, “We will continue to pursue cost improvement initiatives and organizational changes to streamline our business, and make the Company competitive to seize new business opportunities. Our recent efforts to broaden our vessel offerings have been encouraging, and we will accelerate these efforts in the coming months, also looking at completely new business areas. VARD has a strong set of core competencies, technologies and relationships that allow us to look beyond the current industry downturn.”