Newcomer Intership invests in six wellboats

by
Aslak Berge

The shipbuilder Intership was only established three years ago, but already has six wellboats in operation.

“We’ve been operating the wellboats ‘Roy Kristian’ (Marine Harvest Canada) and ‘Christine’ (Grieg Seafood Finnmark) since the middle of 2014. We started the construction of ‘Inter Caledonia’ in the winter of 2014, with delivery in April 2016,” says Ole Peter Brandal, CEO of Intership, a position he previously held in the Sølvtrans shipping company.

Establishment phase
2016 represented the end of the company’s establishment phase, says Brandal. “We have now established a five-person operating organization with extensive experience of well boats and shipping.”

“During the winter we got a deal with Hofseth Aqua, where we participated in the design phase and the signing of the construction contract with Vard on a 1,200 m3 wellboat to be owned by a related company of Hofseth Aqua. We have construction follow-up and have the boat on a five-year bareboat-agreement, and rent it out to Hofseth Aqua on a five-year time scale.”

Ole Peter Brandal

“In this way, we have full responsibility for all aspects of the operation and monitoring of the boat, while Hofseth Aqua receives a customized boat, operated by an experienced management organization with a system to deal with the need to rent the boat out and the possibility of hiring additional capacity. With the financial situation many breeders are in, this is an economically beneficial model, which is interesting to other companies who’v been considering purchasing their own wellboat.”

Hired
Intership has a number of significant shareholders. The two largest are Leinefisk and Panema, which control 32 and 22 percent of the shares respectively. Leinefisk is a fishing company located in Fosnavag, while Panema is owned by Ole Peter Brandal.

“In April, we got a time charter with Marine Harvest Canada on a 1,000 m3 wellboat. We rented the ‘Viktoria Viking’ on a similar bareboat basis, and the boat arrived at Vancouver Island in early June,” he adds.

“We also entered a time charter in June with Grieg Seafood Canada. The 1,000 m3, ‘Donna Salmon’ was hired as a bareboat, and is now on its way to Vancouver Island,  expected to arrive early September.”

Intership has thus established a significant presence in the wellboat sector in the three years the company has been operating.

“Based on the response we have received in the market, we expect further growth,” Brandal says.

Group
Last year the EBIT was negative, but business is growing strongly in 2017.

“We have three companies with revenue from well boat operations: Intership BC Corp., Intership Norge AS and the parent company Intership AS. For the year 2016 we were still a so-called small group and the accounts in the group were not consolidated. Total revenue was in excess of USD 10,1M in 2015, and the Group’s loss was approximately USD 389,558. The deficit thus comes from operations in Intership AS, which only operated the ‘Inter Caledonia’ in the last eight months. Seven weeks off-hire in connection with the installation of RO facilities and other start-up costs is charged in full. By 2017, the entire group, including the activity in Canada, has been revised and consolidated into the parent company, so the picture will be complete,” Brandal explains.

Read also: http://salmonbusiness.com/breakthrough-in-freshwater-treatment-against-lice-and-agd/

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