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Offshore driller Transocean looking to spin off barge unit by year-end
Petroleum News
Deepwater driller Transocean said it hopes before year-end to launch an initial public offering of its TODCO Gulf of Mexico shallow water and inland barge subsidiary.
Lifted by increasing day rates and strong commodity prices, “we’re hopeful the time may be right for the IPO going into the fourth quarter,” Robert Long, Transocean’s chief executive officer, said in an Oct. 28 conference call with analysts.
$8 million in costs due to delays Transocean, during the 2003 third quarter, said it incurred $8 million in costs related to the planned IPO because of delays. Excluding the impact of the IPO costs, net income for the quarter was $19.0 million or 6 cents per share. That compared to net income of $255.2 million or 79 cents per share for last year’s third quarter.
Excluding the impact of a $176.2 million tax benefit and a non-cash loss due to the impairment of assets, Transocean’s net income for the 2003 third quarter was $105.6 million or 33 cents per share, the company said. Fleet utilization was 71% Overall fleet utilization was 71 percent during the 2003 third quarter, compared to 68 percent in the previous quarter and 79 percent for the same period last year. Quarter-over-quarter results were attributed primarily to improved utilization in the company’s fleet of deepwater rigs.
Transocean noted that revenues from its TODCO barge unit were $58.5 million for the third quarter versus $55.4 million during the previous quarter and $54.0 million for the year-ago period. The 6 percent revenue increase from the 2003 second quarter was attributed to improvements in both average fleet utilization and day rates among the segment’s jack-up rigs, the company said.
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