Harkand has gone into administration, according to a recorded answering machine message at the company’s Aberdeen office. Its website has been taken offline.
The subsidiary companies that have gone into administration include: Harkand Global Holdings Ltd, Harkand Gulf Ltd, Harkand Gulf Contracting Ltd, Harkand AME Ltd, ISS Group Holdigns 1 Ltd, ISS Acquisitions Ltd, ISS Holding Ltd, Integrated Subsea Ltd and ISS HR Services Ltd.
Aberdeen-based Harkand Andrews Survey is not included in the liquidation, which could result in the loss of around 170 jobs.
Trading of Harkand Finance’s stock was suspended on Wednesday by the Oslo Børs and the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway.
The trading halt was called after Harkand’s bond trustee, Nordic Trustee, declared the company’s senior secured callable bonds due in March 2019 were in default and “due for immediate payment”.
Harkand completed the $230m bond issue in 2014, through which it raised proceeds to refinance existing debt on the vessels Harkand Atlantis (pictured) and Harkand Da Vinci and fund the pre-delivery installments on a DSV newbuilding.
Harkand Finance and Nordic Trustee agreed to terminate the bareboat charters of two of Harkand’s dive support vessels in late April after the shipping company’s bonds were found to be in default.
Shipyard Bollinger Fourchon filed a lawsuit in New Orleans on April 22, seeking the court’s consent to seize Harkand Gulf Services’s ROV vessel Siem Spearfish, which has racked up over $60,000 in unpaid invoices after use of the yard’s docks over the past year.
The head of Harkand’s group corporate finance and treasury division refused to comment when contacted by Splash today.
