On the wires: Ardent Americas strikes emergency deal with Boskalis

Ding!

PRESS RELEASE: Boskalis expands salvage presence in the US by acquiring Ardent Americas

Papendrecht, 9 April 2020: Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) announces the acquisition of maritime emergency response specialist Ardent Americas LLC (Ardent Americas). Ardent Americas is a leading player under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA90) for the provision of marine emergency response services in the United States (US).

– To read the full release click here.

– To read our recent coverage – “First casualty – ex-AP Møller Mærsk JV goes bust” – please click here. The company is currently in the process of ceasing operations in an orderly fashion, its management team told staff recently.

– Premium Feedback: “Having run out of money, for Ardent it would have been much more expensive to wind down the business in the Americas than giving it to Boskalis, which via Ardent Americas also avoids anti-trust issues that would have likely blocked a deal if it had tried to rescue the whole company,” one source close to the emergency deal noted. “It would have taken time and blood to save it, so no liquidation-related headaches for them, this is good.”

– Over 30 lenders denied funding to Ardent in recent weeks, while five trade buyers were approached but walked away. The business is expected to cease operations in the upcoming weeks; employees should get their credit card bills (travel expenses) sorted sooner rather than later. The company CEO internally announced Ardent would “end operations” at the end of March, when he told staff that they would “close down the group” and were trying to determine what that “would mean for everybody”.