Lack of auditor may result in liquidation for Oceanteam

Following a plethora of internal issues experienced in the last couple of months by offshore support vessel provider Oceanteam, the company may also be facing liquidation if it fails to appoint a new auditor soon.

Oceanteam informed on Tuesday it has received a notice from the Register of Business Enterprises that the period granted to the company to appoint and register a new auditor has been extended to April 15, 2018.

If the company fails to remedy this matter by the deadline the register will notify the District Court thereof which may result in a compulsory liquidation of the company.

The company added it continues working on resolving this issue.

As a reminder, Oceanteam’s troubles started when it suspended KPMG, its auditor in Norway, following the discovery of audit costs that were charged for work not performed. KPMG in that same month withdrew its services as the company’s auditor in Norway.

On February 9 an investigation was launched into the company following a request by its shareholders.

Later in February, the lack of the company auditor triggered a warning and a fine from the Oslo Stock Exchange for breach of the duty to disclose inside information to the market and other continuing obligations for stock exchange listed companies.

According to the stock exchange, Oceanteam did not publicly disclose inside information about the resignation by the company’s auditor in November 2017 sufficiently promptly.

While a decision was made not to delist Oceanteam’s shares from trading for the time being, the exchange warned that if the company did not take sufficient measures to improve its routines, competence and disclosures to the market to avoid further breaches of the rules, a new suitability assessment by the exchange could lead to a delisting of the company’s financial instruments.

Oceanteam then announced its intention to perform a cross border merger with its Dutch subsidiary which would solve the auditor situation and the associated risk of a value destructive forced liquidation.

The company’s board will propose this plan at the extraordinary general meeting to be held on April 10. If the plan gets approved, the company will be deleted in the Norwegian Register of Enterprises when the merger enters into force and its shares delisted from the Oslo Stock Exchange.

Offshore Energy Today Staff