Company building well boats for Tassal and Marine Harvest Scotland.
In order to fund the remaining part of the existing newbuilding program and two new vessels, DESS Aqua has decided to raise EUR 72 million of equity, according to a statement from the company.
DESS Aquaculture Shipping (DESS Aqua) is a part-owned company of Solstad Offshore (Solstad) within the aquaculture segment.
Equity
The new equity will be raised through a private placement directed towards Hemen Holding and Marine Harvest, with 50% each. Following such private placement, DESS Aqua will be owned by Solstad (approx. 20%), Marine Harvest (50%) and Hemen Holding Ltd (approx 30%).
DESS Aqua has taken delivery of the the wellboat “Aqua Tromøy” and directly started a 5-year charter contract with Marine Harvest for operations in Canada. “Aqua Tromøy” has a capacity of 3.000 m3 and is equipped with a Reverse Osmosis (“RO”) plant producing up to 6.000 m3 of fresh water per day.
Tassal
DESS Aqua has entered into a 10-year charter contract with Tassal, one of Australia’s largest salmon producers, for wellboat for operations in Australia. A 5-year charter contract with Marine Harvest for a wellboat for operations in Scotland has also been signed.
Consequently, DESS Aqua has declared options for two wellboats to be built at Sefine, Turkey. The new vessels will have a capacity of 3.500 m3 and will be sister vessels of the four wellboats already under construction at Sefine. The wellboat that will operate for Tassal will be equipped with a RO plant that’ll producing up to 4.500 m3 of fresh water per day. The two new vessels will be delivered from the yard in 4Q 2020 and 1Q 2021.
Delivery
DESS Aqua currently has the two vessels “Aqua Merdø” (stun and bleed vessel) and “Aqua Tromøy” (wellboat) in operation working on long-term contracts. Furthermore, the company has in total seven wellboats under construction, in addition to three service vessels. When this newbuilding program is delivered, the fleet will consist of 12 aquaculture vessels.
The next vessel to be delivered is a service vessel with scheduled delivery in 1Q 2019.
