Offshore engineering company Global Marine Group looks to be changing hands after HC2 Holdings announced that it is exploring strategic alternatives, including a potential sale, for the subsidiary.
Supported by Fugro, who have a 23.6% stake in Global Marine, Deutsche Bank and ABN AMRO have been appointed as joint advisors to explore strategic alternatives for the business.
Philip Falcone, chairman, CEO and president of HC2, said: “Since our acquisition four years ago, the management team at Global Marine has repositioned and strengthened itself by securing and maintaining leadership positions in various key growth markets, a testament to the strength of this business and the quality and focus of the team. They’ve renewed the fleet of marine assets through strategic acquisitions and re-organized the business to pursue attractive growth opportunities, all while substantially reducing debt that was assumed during the acquisition.
“We believe exploring strategic options now will clearly position the next buyer to strategically capitalize on the next phase of growth of the Global Marine business, while allowing current investors an opportunity to realize substantial value creation since the acquisition in 2014. Reducing HC2’s debt cost of capital has been a top priority of ours, and we believe monetizing this asset will get us above and beyond that important goal.”
Global Marine has grown significantly over the past few years with some handy acquisitions. In February 2016, it acquired offshore renewables specialist CWind followed by the acquisition of Fugro’s cable laying business in October 2017.
“We very much welcome this decision from HC2 to explore strategic options to support the continued growth of the Global Marine Group platform,” said Ian Douglas, Chief Executive Officer of Global Marine.
