The Annual General Meeting of AqualisBraemar LOC ASA was held on 1 June 2022.
All resolutions proposed in the notice to the Annual General Meeting were
approved by the shareholders. Please find attached the minutes from the Annual
General Meeting.
AqualisBraemar LOC ASA (“ABL Group”) has entered into an agreement to sell its loss adjusting business (the “Adjusting Business”) to the management group of the Adjusting Business. The Adjusting Business will be trading as SteegeXP going forward.
The Adjusting Business provides loss adjusting and dispute resolution services to the global insurance market through offices in London, Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Houston, Calgary, Mexico City and Dubai. The Adjusting Business generated revenues of approximately USD 10 million in 2021, predominantly from the oil and gas sector.
“As the global leader within marine warranty surveys, and especially following the acquisition of LOC Group, we have increasingly faced challenges with perceived conflicts of interest between our loss adjusting business and other group services. We are therefore delighted to have reached an agreement with our good colleagues within loss adjusting which allows them to continue their growth as an independent company and enables ABL Group to freely market its marine warranty services in the energy sector without such perceived conflicts. I would like to thank each and every one of our employees joining SteegeXP for their contribution to making ABL Group what it is today, and wish SteegeXP the very best going forward”, says Reuben Segal, CEO of ABL Group.
The Adjusting Business traces its roots back to the early 1970s when it was established as Steege Kingston. Steege Kingston was acquired by Braemar Shipping Services in 2008 and joined ABL Group as part of the acquisition of Braemar Technical Services in 2019.
“Making this transaction happen is something that will benefit both ABL Group and SteegeXP commercially. We are very grateful that ABL Group shared this view and for how helpful they have been in enabling the management buy-out and the establishment of a fully employee-owned business. This is a very exciting time for a specialist loss adjusting business such as SteegeXP,” says Nigel Carpenter on behalf of the SteegeXP management group.
The enterprise value of the transaction is approximately USD 6.0 million. Settlement will consist of a cash consideration of approximately USD 0.9 million on completion, and a seller’s credit of USD 1.0 million to be repaid over 18 months from completion. Accounts receivable related to the Adjusting Business will largely remain with ABL Group, with an option to sell any uncollected amounts to SteegeXP 18 months from completion, subject to certain restrictions. As a result of the transaction, ABL Group expects to free up approximately USD 5.8 million of working capital over the next 18 months. In connection with the transaction, up to 37 employees will be transferred to SteegeXP.
The transaction is expected to close in Q2 2022 and is not expected to have a material EBIT impact for ABL Group in the quarter.
Following the transaction, ABL Group expects to have the following employee share options outstanding under the company’s long-term incentive plan:
ABL Group has entered into a customary non-compete agreement under which it undertakes not to offer loss adjusting services which competes with the Adjusting Business for a period of 36 months from completion. ABL Group’s marine casualty management services and other services towards the global insurance market are not affected by the transaction.
Dividend Amount: NOK 0.30 per share
Declared currency: NOK
Last day including right: 1 June 2022
Ex-date: 2 June 2022
Record date: 3 June 2022
Payment date: On or about 17 June 2022
Date of approval: 1 June 2022
This information is published in accordance with the requirements of the Continuing Obligations.
The Annual General Meeting of AqualisBraemar LOC ASA will be held on 1 June 2022 at 11 CET at the Company’s offices, 3rd floor, Haakon VIIs Gate 6, 0161 OSLO.
Shareholders are recommended to exercise their shareholder rights through advance votes by electronic communication via VPS Investor Services or to vote by proxy prior to the meeting. The notice including attendance, proxy and advance voting forms will be mailed to all shareholders with known address. The complete notice, including the recommendation from the Nomination Committee is attached here.
For notice of attendance, advance votes, proxy etc please click here.
AqualisBraemar LOC ASA Annual Report 2021 is attached and can now be downloaded from our Reports and Presentations page.
The Annual report 2021 is also available in the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF).
FINANCIAL YEAR 2022
31.08.2022 – Half-yearly Report
29.04.2022 – Annual Report
01.06.2022 – Annual General Meeting
29.04.2022 – Quarterly Report – Q1
28.10.2022 – Quarterly Report – Q3
Change of date for AGM from June 2nd to June 1st 2022
This information is published pursuant to the requirements set out in the
Continuing obligations.
Reuben Segal, CEO of AqualisBraemar LOC ASA (“AqualisBraemar LOC”, “ABL Group” or the “Company”) commented:
“For the first quarter, we are pleased to report our highest quarterly revenue, operating profit and operating cash flow to date. We are seeing high and increasing activity across all our market sectors, resulting in improved staff utilisation and pricing power.
Revenues grew 8% year-on-year, primarily driven by continued high growth in our renewables consultancy OWC, which grew 56% compared to the same quarter last year. Investments made in recruitment, new business areas and high bid submission activity through 2021 are starting to pay off, enabling high activity in what is normally a seasonally weaker quarter for renewables.
These results represent the highest operating margin in a first quarter in the Company’s history. While the Middle East and Asia Pacific remain our strongest performers in terms of profitability, we see improvements across all segments relative to the last quarter. Synergies from the LOC acquisition, of which we have now realised USD 3.4 million of our USD 4.0 million target on a run rate basis, have contributed to the margin increase and we expect the remainder of these synergies to be realised during 2022.
Our market outlook remains upbeat, as an increased focus on energy security is expected to lead to increased demand for our services across renewables and oil and gas. This increased activity is likely to result in rate and cost inflation, and we remain focused on staying ahead of the curve as the market develops.”
A presentation of the quarterly results will be held today at 08:15 CET at SpareBank 1 Markets’ office at Olav Vs gate 5, 0161 Oslo. The event will be webcasted live and available for replay shortly after. To watch the webcast and download the presentation, please visit our Reports and Presentations page.
CrossWind, the joint venture between Shell and Eneco, has appointed international energy and marine consultancy ABL Group to support the construction of the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm.
ABL’s operations in the Netherlands, working closely with the company’s offices in Aberdeen and London in the UK, has been appointed to provide Marine Warranty Survey (MWS) services for the offshore transportation and installation (T&I) of the wind turbines, with a view to putting the first turbine in the water by 2023.
The scope of work also includes MWS of T&I operations relating to the inter array cables.
“The Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm will have a big impact on the offshore wind energy market. With CrossWind and partners actively involved with R&D to identify innovation and renewable technology clustering to maximise efficiency, this is a great project to be involved in. We are excited to get started.”
Jetze-Dirk Spijksma, Project Manager at ABL’s Dutch operations
The 759MW Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm will be located 18.5 kilometres off the coast of the North-Holland province. It will consist of 69 wind turbines of 11MW, situated mostly over 1 kilometre from each other, and installed at around 15-28 metres water depth.
ABL Group has an extensive track-record of supporting the Dutch offshore wind market, contributing to more than ten projects with a combined capacity of more than 4GW. This includes roles as owner’s engineer, independent engineering consultant, geotechnical engineer and MWS.
ABL is part of Oslo-listed AqualisBraemar LOC ASA.
AqualisBraemar LOC ASA (“ABL”) will release its first-quarter results on Friday, 29 April 2022 at approximately 06:00 Central European Time (CET).
A presentation of the quarterly results will be held the same day at 08:15 CET at SpareBank 1 Markets’ office at Olav Vs gate 5, 0161 Oslo. The event will be webcast live and available for replay shortly after. To watch the webcast, please visit our Reports and Presentations page.
The earnings release concerning the quarterly results and a corresponding slide presentation will be posted on www.newsweb.no and on our Reports and Presentations page.
25 February 2022 – AqualisBraemar LOC’s 2021 fourth-quarter results
Reuben Segal, CEO of AqualisBraemar LOC ASA (“AqualisBraemar LOC”, “ABL” or the “Company”) commented:
“2021 has been an eventful year for the Company. The acquisition of LOC Group, completed just before the start of the year, meant we doubled in size for the second time in less than two years. I am impressed and proud of the way our employees from both groups have welcomed their new colleagues, and how seamlessly the two organisations have gelled together. The integration of two equally strong organisations across 39 countries will always be a challenging task, and it was certainly not made easier by the travel restrictions in place for most of the year. I want to direct a heartfelt thanks to our employees for their dedication and efforts in dealing with the integration and other challenges caused by the pandemic. As omicron-related restrictions are now lifting in many of our operating areas, we look forward to seeing our colleagues more in person in the year to come, while taking advantage the improved efficiencies and learning points from the last two unprecedented years.
In addition to the LOC transaction, we carried out three other acquisitions during the year: East Point Geo, a geoscience consultancy delivering services primarily to renewables, OSD-IMT, a ship design consultancy with more than 150 designs launched to date, and finally the remaining shareholding in Innosea, our renewables engineering, design and R&D consultancy. These additions have strengthened ABL’s capabilities in key strategic areas, supporting further growth within renewables and engineering specifically.
In 2020 we set a group-wide target of 50% renewables and sustainability-oriented services in our business mix by 2025. This was an ambitious target, but with 53% revenue growth in renewables during 2021, we are well on our way there: Renewables now make up 27% of our total group revenues. We also opened three new renewables hubs during the year, in Ireland, France and Brazil, and started three new renewables business areas with key senior hires within onshore wind, battery storage and hydrogen. While these growth investments and higher than normal bid submission activity lowered margins in our renewables business during the fourth quarter, we are already seeing the benefit and expect them to support continued high growth in 2022.
Within oil & gas and maritime, we are now seeing green shoots after another year of curtailed activity amid pandemic restrictions and limited investment budgets. While rig activity and brownfield activities have been stronger since the summer, we are now seeing signs of more greenfield investments, and we expect this to drive significant order intake in 2022. Given the capex investments and sanctioning activity now signalled by oil companies, and the reduced capacity in the market after years of low investments, we expect rates in this market to increase in the coming years.
Finally, we are happy to announce that the Board has proposed another dividend increase to NOK 0.3 per share, as part of our semi-annual dividend schedule. Our shareholders have repeatedly supported us in connection with the major acquisitions over the last few years, and we remain focused on repaying that trust by returning capital to shareholders.”
A presentation of the quarterly results will be held today at 08:45 CET at SpareBank 1 Markets’ office at Olav Vs gate 5, 0161 Oslo. The event will be webcasted live and available for replay shortly after. To watch the webcast and download the report and presentation, please visit our Reports and Presentations page.
