Germany-based energy firm innogy has sold its offshore installation vessel ‘Seabreeze II’ to Hong Kong-based firm SPIC Ronghe International Financial Leasing Co. Ltd.
Richard Sandford, Director of Offshore Investment & Asset Management at innogy SE explained that ten years ago innogy had decided to acquire and operate its own installation vessels so to eliminate an important bottleneck in the construction of offshore wind farms.
"However, since that time, such bottlenecks have eased through the availability of a range of state of the art installation vessels that are available worldwide in innogy’s current and future core markets."
"As ownership and operation of offshore service vessels is not considered as a core business activity of innogy, and following on from the sale of the sister vessel ‘Seabreeze I’ (‘Victoria Mathias’) in 2015, we are convinced that selling our remaining offshore installation vessel ‘Seabreeze II’ is now the right step for innogy."
Nevertheless, he said, the vessel meets the requirements of the currently rapidly growing Asian offshore markets and is a great asset to her new owner.
"The transaction can be considered as a win-win situation for all stakeholders. I would like to thank the dedicated team that has attended to the vessel over the years for its commitment and the successful realization of this transaction," Sandford said.
The vessel ‘Seabreeze II’ (formerly named ‘Friedrich Ernestine’, currently sailing under the name ‘Tuo Peng’) was previously under long-term charter to a Chinese joint venture.
innogy did not provide financial details of the deal.