Swissco posts US$296m Q3 loss on impairments

SWISSCO Holdings dived into a net loss of US$296 million in the third quarter under the weight of massive impairment charges and losses from its associates and joint ventures.

The oilfield vessel operator's loss per share was 43.84 US cents for the three months ended September. Net profit from a year ago was US$11.2 million, or 1.66 US cents per share. For the nine months ended September, net loss stood at US$300 million, or 44.52 US cents per share.

Revenue fell 63.5 per cent to US$3.8 million during the quarter, with no revenue derived from two wholly owned rigs off-charter since 2015. The company has not received charter collections from three joint-venture rigs with Ezion Holdings. All of the sales came from the offshore support vessel segment, which suffered from lower utilisation and lower charter rates as a result of the downturn in the oil and gas industry.

Swissco recognised US$181 million of impairments during the quarter. That comprised US$153.6 million of impairment losses on rigs and vessels and US$27.4 million on receivables and a loan to a joint venture.

Share of results of associates and joint ventures fell to a loss of US$107.3 million from a year-ago profit of US$10.7 million due to impairment losses on rigs.

Swissco on Monday said that it will file for judicial management in the next few days after failing to win support for a bond restructuring plan.

The company was in negative equity of US$29.1 million as at end-September, with US$291.6 million of liabilities and just US$262.5 million of assets. Current liabilities stood at US$280.3 million, compared to US$27.2 million of current assets.