Innogy sells Seabreeze II, exits offshore service vessel market

Innogy has sold and handed over its offshore installation vessel Seabreeze II and related equipment to SPIC Ronghe International Financial Leasing Co. Ltd.

A corresponding agreement between innogy and the Hong Kong-based leasing company had previously been signed in February, the German energy company said.

With the sale of Seabreeze I in 2015 and now the sale of Seabreeze II, innogy has exited the wind farm installation vessel market.

The Seabreeze II, formerly named Friedrich Ernestine and currently sailing under the name Tuo Peng, was previously under a long-term charter to a Chinese joint venture.

“A decade ago innogy took the decision to eliminate an important bottleneck in the construction of offshore wind farms via the ownership and operation of its own installation vessels,” Richard Sandford, Director of Offshore Investment & Asset Management at innogy SE, said.

”However, since that time, such bottlenecks have eased through the availability of a range of state of the art installation vessels that are available worldwide in innogy’s current and future core markets.”

Sandford added that innogy sees the sale of the Seabreeze II as the right step as ownership and operation of offshore service vessels is not considered a core business activity of the company.

”Nevertheless, the vessel meets the requirements of the currently rapidly growing Asian offshore markets and is a great asset to her new owner,” Sandford said.