Stability is in the wind at offshore firmTekmar
OFFSHORE business Tekmar says it has “stabilised” its operations despite seeing growing losses in its latest results.
The Darlington-based firm has released results for the year ending September 2023 in which its revenues increased from £30.2m to £39.9m.
But the group saw its operating loss more than double from £4.6m to £9.3m, though this was mainly due to a £4.7m writedown of goodwill in its offshore energy division.
The year saw Tekmar secure a £22m investment through a partnership with US private equity firm SCF Partners. This followed a strategic review in which the company effectively put itself up for sale, having faced a string of challenges posed by the pandemic, compounded by cost pressures and inefficiencies caused by lower volumes, supply chain and logistics challenges.
Despite growing losses, Tekmar said its 2023 financial year had been a “significant improvement” on the two previous periods and that it was expecting to return to profitability.
The company highlighted orders secured for pipeline protection systems in the Middle East and work on the Dogger Bank wind farm, which it said had helped it secure an order book worth an improved £19.7m.
It said it was encouraged by the opportunities for new orders in the rest of the current financial year.
CEO Alasdair MacDonald said: “The business made further progress in FY23 in improving operational and financial performance and delivered results in-line with market expectations. Importantly, we have stabilised the business, with breakeven adjusted Ebitda a significant improvement on FY22 and FY21.
We are confident we have established a clear and sustainable path to improving profitability, with the group expected to be profitable at the adjusted Ebitda level in FY24.
“We are alert to the opportunities to complement organic growth through M&A that can increase our scale and strengthen our services offering across our end-markets, all consistent with building a leading, global offshore wind services platform over time. We are fully committed to delivering on the opportunity ahead for Tekmar to build a platform for sustainable growth and creating significant value for shareholders.”
In the results, Tekmar highlighted the differing performances of its marine civils operation, which performed strongly, and the offshore energy division, which reported similar losses to the previous two years. It said that improving the profitability of the offshore energy operation was key to overall group recovery.
Despite its recent struggles, Tekmar said it was pursuing merger and acquisition opportunities with the ambition of becoming “a leading global offshore wind services company over time”. It said that the funding available from SCF put it at a “distinct advantage” in this area.