Thailand’s Mermaid Maritime delayed delivery of two tender rig newbuildings and a DP2 subsea dive support and construction vessel from China Merchants Industry Holdings.
The two drilling rigs were originally scheduled to arrive in the first and second quarters of 2016, but will now be delivered on December 21.
The dive support vessel will hit the water on June 30, 2017, instead of the third quarter this year.
Mermaid said it has already recorded an asset impairment write-off on the entire deposit and associated costs of the vessels in its 2015 financial results, “in a move to mitigate financial exposure”.
The vessels were ordered in January 2014 for a combined price of $436m.
Delaying delivery of the vessels will buy Mermaid time to figure out what to do with them, in light of market conditions that have changed dramatically since the shipbuilding contracts were signed.
“This includes, but shall not be limited to, accepting delivery of one or more of these assets from the builder on or before the respective delivery dates, or sale and disposal of the same to interested third parties,” the Singapore-listed company said.
