Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

Kvaerner ASA, an offshore-platform builder controlled by billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke, said plunging oil prices have for now closed off opportunities for transforming strategy including changes in ownership.

Kvaerner will limit such shifts to expanding maintenance and modification of onshore facilities, Chief Executive Officer Jan Arve Haugan said in Oslo. The company, owned 28 percent indirectly by Roekke’s investment company Aker ASA, said in September it was exploring strategic opportunities that could include a merger or takeover.

“When oil prices tumble from $110 to $50 a barrel and we’re in this business, it goes without saying that the terms have changed,” Haugan said in an interview after presenting fourth-quarter results. “For the time being, we, like everyone else, have a short-term perspective on our activities.”

Falling prices have put pressure on oil producers to rein in spending, squeezing service and equipment suppliers like Kvaerner. The Fornebu, Norway-based company, which reported a net loss of 302 million kroner ($40 million) in the quarter and said sales may drop more than 40 percent in 2015, has fallen 25 percent on the Oslo stock exchange since June 30.

Sliding stock valuations and weaker markets have led to mergers in the oil-services industry including the combination of Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc. last year. Roekke’s 67 percent-controlled Aker and the companies it invests in are also looking for opportunities for deals in the current environment, its CEO Oeyvind Eriksen said in November.

While Kvaerner isn’t considering moves involving any change of ownership or “large new investment,” the company has identified long-term opportunities, Haugan said Wednesday, declining to elaborate.

“There are no dramatic changes going through in the short term” for Kvaerner, he said. “The owners will decide on the future of the company. For now, everyone understands that a decline from $110 to $50 creates a short-term perspective.”