Rieber Amends Dolphin Deal
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Norwegian shipping company GC Rieber Shipping ASA has entered into an agreement with Dolphin Geophysical to increase Dolphins competitiveness in a challenging market.
Rieber has agreed to take early redelivery of the survey vessel Polar Duke from Dolphin as part of an overall restructuring agreement.
The deal will reduce $16million of hire payments for GC Rieber. Together with Dolphin’s improved terms of bank loans and reduced charter rates on Dolphin’s vessels from fellow Norwegian shipping firm Sanco, the deal will significantly improve Dolphin’s costbase.
In addition, GC Rieber Shipping will grant Dolphin a rolling credit facility of USD 5 million, consisting of payments due to GC Rieber Shipping. The credit facility is effective for 9 months.
As part of the same agreement, the firm periods of the Polar Duchess and the Polar Marquis charters have been extended by 18 months.
"We are satisfied we’ve been able to reach an agreement together with other major stakeholders that supports Dolphin Geophysical in improving their competitiveness in the challenging market ahead," says CEO Irene Waage Basili.
Last month GC Rieber said it had terminated a five-year charter agreement with Ceona for the subsea vessel Polar Onyx. The announcement pre-empted the news that Ceona was about to enter administration, which led to the loss of 102 jobs in Aberdeen, London and Houston.