Marine Subsea holders give consent to amend 9% bonds in restructuring

By Susanna Moon

Chicago, Nov. 29 - Marine Subsea Cyprus Holding Ltd. said bondholders unanimously voted to amend its 9% bonds due 2019 in connection with the restructuring of the notes.

The meeting was held in Oslo on Nov. 29, and there were enough holders to form a quorum, according to a notice by Norsk Tillitsmann.

Marine Subsea AS is the parent guarantor. The meeting was announced on Nov. 21.

As previously noted, holders were asked to waive and release any and all claims against trustee Norsk Tillitsmann.

The company incorporated a new silent limited partnership under the name Offshore Accommodation IS, with Offshore Accommodation AS as its general partner.

Offshore Accommodation was formed to purchase three offshore barges, and Pareto Project Finance AS received indicative commitments for $74 million to enable Offshore Accommodation to acquire the barges from some Marine Subsea Cyprus subsidiaries.

A previous notice said that Pareto had exhausted its financing possibilities.

Marine Subsea Cyprus originally proposed that some of its shares and debt owed by subsidiaries be transferred to a newly formed entity, African Offshore Services AS. The purchase price was to be $90 million in cash.

Fees were estimated at roughly $2 million in addition to a maximum $15 million payment to Jaya Shipbuilding and Engineering Pte. Ltd. for Jaya to release its pledge over the shares of Marine Subsea Worker Pte. and the mortgage covering the African Worker barge.

Holders were expected to receive a cash payment of about $73 million.

In addition, the company was to pay $150,000 per week from the Aug. 31 first-summons date until the restructuring is complete. The additional amount had accumulated to $1.65 million as of a previous notice, which was to be paid to the trustee.

Bondholders were asked to consider the revised restructuring proposal to provide for the $74 million to be paid by Offshore Accommodation for the barges in addition to 40% of the partnership shares, which would be distributed to bondholders.

Based on the revisions, the additional amount was roughly equal to bondholder costs, leaving a cash amount of about $59 million to be distributed to holders.

Following the payment, the principal amount of the bonds will be reduced by $75 million.

Marine Subsea also proposed that $16 million of shares be issued to bondholders.

Approval required a majority vote from a quorum of holders of two-thirds of the bonds.

The company originally issued $246 million of the bonds.

Oslo-based Marine Subsea is an international offshore support company with a main focus in West Africa.

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