Market conditions differ in Vard's, Otto Marine's delistings

VARD Holdings' controlling shareholder's clinching of the required votes to delist the company - if recognised by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) - will mark the close of a chapter for the second shipbuilder on the local bourse since 2016.

The first company to delist was Otto Marine, in October 2016. Bothwere victims of plunging crude oil prices from mid-2014 to mid-2017. But there are some differences between the delisting journey for both Vard and Otto Marine, the key one being market conditions at the time of delisting.

Vard currently finds itself at an interesting inflexion point of oil price recovery. From shareholders' perspective, to delist the company now would be to deprive them the opportunity of a long-anticipated upside after three consecutive years of losses.