Overview

Headquartered in Esbjerg, Denmark, ESVAGT is a leading provider of emergency rescue and response vessels ("ERRV") and related services to the offshore energy industry in and around the North Sea and the Barents Sea. The company is also the market leader in the fast growing segment of service operation vessels ("SOV") for the offshore wind industry. 

Its ERRV services mainly involve the rescue and recovery of personnel, but also include the dispersion and recovery of oil spills, crew transfers and towing. ESVAGT is the leading provider of ERRV services in Denmark and Norway, with market shares of approximately 100% and 50% respectively, as well as an established and growing presence in the UK. The majority of ESVAGT's ERRV revenues are associated with North Sea oil and gas production support, with the remainder generated by supporting exploration activity.

ESVAGT is also the pioneer and market leader in the provision of SOVs to offshore wind farms, with seven bespoke vessels in operation and a further two under construction. SOVs are purpose-built, high performance vessels, providing efficient transport of maintenance technicians to wind turbines and other offshore equipment, under long term contracts. The offshore wind market, and hence demand for SOVs, is expected to grow strongly over the coming years, creating significant opportunities for the company.

ESVAGT has been operating since 1981, employs over 1,000 people and owns a fleet of more than 43 vessels.

Recent developments

• ESVAGT has established a leading position in the offshore wind service operation vessels (‘SOV’) market. Its US joint venture, CREST, signed its first contract, a 15-year availability-based agreement with Siemens Gamesa servicing the Coastal Virginia Offshore Windfarm. This win positions ESVAGT very well as the near-term pipeline grows in the region. In Europe, a number of tenders will take place over the next 12 months and ESVAGT is expecting to benefit from its recent wins of green SOVs for Ørsted.
• The EERV segment continues to see strong momentum due to the improved oil and gas markets, attractive supply / demand dynamics and an increased focus on security of supply in Europe due to the war in Ukraine. ESVAGT has benefited from these attractive market conditions to extend several key contracts. 
• Inflation is generally positive for ESVAGT due to its index-linked contracts, however cost inflation, in particular fuel costs, has accelerated faster than expected in the period. 

Regulatory information 
This transaction involved a recommendation of 3i Investments plc.