Directors at north-east firm SeaEnergy contemplated winding the company up as part of a review of the business, its new chief executive said yesterday.
John Aldersey-Williams revealed the board had considered if ending operations and distributing the proceeds to shareholders would offer investors best value. But it concluded it should continue which would offer greater returns, he said.
Mr Aldersey-Williams, previously a non-executive director, added: “I think any company should be considering if it is doing the best thing for the shareholders and the money they have invested.
“That should be part of the continuing discipline of any board but we believe we can grow the value of shareholders’ investments.”
He said SeaEnergy’s future strategy would revolve around acquiring existing profitable service companies, developing businesses organically and designing and operating support vessels for the North Sea’s offshore wind industry.
SeaEnergy, based at Westhill, near Aberdeen, was involved in offshore wind development before it sold its SeaEnergy Renewables division to Spanish oil giant Repsol in a £40million deal last year.
Mr Aldersey-Williams, who took on the CEO role after SeaEnergy founder Steve Remp left the firm last month, said the company was already in discussions with windfarm operators and expected to tender for support-vessel contracts later this year.
He added: “We have been actively marketing this concept for two years and have some real traction among the future client base. We are optimistic there is going to be a good volume of tenders this year and that we are going to be on the bidding lists for them.”