Aker Kvaerner Group

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The Aker Kvaerner Group

The fight against bankruptcy

Executive summery

During 16, Kvaerner sought to strengthen its engineering base internationally through the acquisition of the UK-

Buy cheap Aker Kvaerner Group term paper

based conglomerate, Trafalgar House. The acquisition was completed in May 16. Kvaerner became an

international player in shipbuilding, oil and gas, pulp and paper and engineering and construction. It moved its

international headquarters to London in the spring of 16.

In the following years, increasing financial and operational difficulties followed strong growth financed through

debt. The acquisitions had resulted in a broad business portfolio, without a corresponding management capacity. The

consequences were weak integration of the acquired units and no realization of synergies between the different

business areas.

In 1 the company initiated a major sell-off, focusing on realizing capital through divestments. These efforts did

not solve the mounting financial and operational challenges, which eventually brought the company into an acute

liquidity crisis in August 001.

In July 000, Aker Maritime ASA, a Norway-based offshore products, technology and services provider, had bought

6 per cent of the shares in Kvaerner ASA. The investment was made with the aim of creating a focused, profitable

and forward-looking group based in Norway, with substantial international operations.

It took 18 months to achieve the goal of integrating these businesses. In late November 001 an agreement was

reached between Aker Maritime ASA and Kvaerner ASA. Aker Maritime injected NOK .8 bn in net assets, raised

another NOK .5 bn through two direct issues and renegotiated NOK 8.6 bn of Kvaerners debt.

The result was a financially stronger Kvaerner, with four focused business areas Oil & Gas, Engineering &

Construction, Pulp & Paper and Shipbuilding. The group decided to adopt the Aker Kvaerner brand for the entire

group. But in 00 Aker Kvaerner still had a huge liquidity problem, so the company kept selling asset to earn

revenues. But in the end of 00 came the message Aker Kvaerner had again a liquidity cries.

To day Aker Kvaerner dont know how their are going to pay their workers salary the coming month, and their

struggling every day to avoid bankruptcy.

Introduction

The Aker Kvaerner Group

Aker Kvaerner is a world-class international oil services and products, engineering and

construction, and shipbuilding Group with the capability and resources to undertake the

worlds most challenging projects.

Todays Aker Kvaerner is an industrial technology provider. It meets the needs of its

customers by adding value to their business - through the provision of innovative, cost-

effective solutions - for challenges in the hydrocarbons, process, and maritime industries.

The Groups activities are organised in four core business areas

• Oil & Gas

• E&C

• Pulp & Paper

• Shipbuilding

The Group has annual revenues in excess of US$6 billion, with some 4,000 permanent

staff located in more than 0 countries throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the

Americas.

This assignment is consentrated around the last years, but to explaine how they got their huges

debt, that was the main reasen for their crises, I start the assignment with telling the storry back

from 16. Then I explain about Kvaerners way thru crises after crises and until to days almost

bankruptcy. The assignment try to analyze what went wrong and way it went wrong.

Expanding and growth by loan financing

In 16 Kvaerner was the biggest engineering company in Norway. Kvaerner wanted as most

corporations to increase the value of the company and grow even bigger. To do this its a normal

process to expand their business to foreign countries. Kvaerner already had a lot of operations

around the world, but to grow bigger Kvaerners CEO, Erik Tønseth, saw it as necessary to

increase their international attendance in shipbuilding, oil and gas, pulp and paper and

engineering and construction.

During 16, Kvaerners CEO, strengthen its engineering base internationally through the

acquisition of the UK-based conglomerate, Trafalgar House.

To move the headquarter to London was a big change and an operation with high acquisition

cost.

At this time Kvaerner already had a lot of debt and to finance the new changes they borrowed

more cash from the banks.

The changes resulted in a broader business portfolio and this required greater and more exigent

management than Kvaerner had.

The management capacity didnt correspond to this requests.

The consequences were weak integration of the acquired units and no realization of synergies

between the different business areas.

In the following years, increasing financial and operational difficulties followed strong growth

financed through debt.

No dividends and increase in share outstanding

After 17 the company had to stop to give dividends to save money, but they kept invest money

to expand their business and to try to increase the revenues. But they didnt earn the money they

hoped, and the company started to increase shares outstanding to earn money. In 18 they kept

selling shares, and the value per share just kept falling.

After two years following this strategy the company hadnt seen anything ells than red numbers,

and in 1 the CEO Erik Tønseth got fired.

Restructuring and downsizing

The new CEO, Kjell Almskog, changed the strategy and initiated a major sell-off, focusing on

realizing capital through divestments. Now it was the agenda for change that again was in focus.

This involves a series of fundamental structural changes in order to create a company with a

clear focus on two core business areas Oil & Gas and Engineering & Construction.

An intense focus will be maintained on the debt reduction program to meet the earlier announced

objective for the Group to have zero net debt by the end of year 000.

Kvaerner planned to build shareholder value by creating a profitable Norwegian player with the

strength to compete internationally in selected regions and market areas. They planned to do this

by

• strengthening profitability through improved operation and better co-ordination between the

Engineering & Construction (E&C) and Oil & Gas (O&G) business areas.

• strengthening profitability through improved operation and better co-ordination between the

Engineering & Construction (E&C) and Oil & Gas (O&G) business areas.

• taking greater advantage of E&Cs strong global position and exploiting its extensive existing

expertise in pipelines, refining and other land-based process plants for the oil and gas industry.

• strengthening the technological platform through the acquisition of small technology-oriented

companies which complement the existing operations and product portfolio.

• strengthening the presence in selected regions such as the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, western

Africa and the Caspian, with a particular focus on subsea production in deep water• assessing

alliances and partnerships with large companies.

During 000 and 001 the more than 0 businesses was sold or closed. Overhead costs was

reduced by more than NOK billion per year, net interest bearing debt was reduced by NOK 6

billion.

The CEO breach the disclosure requirement

But these efforts werent enough to solve the mounting financial and operational challenges, and

during the summer 001 the CEO Kjell Almskog knew that they were going to meet a liquidity

crisis in August, if they didnt borrow more money.

To the shareholders he told that the future prospect for the q was quite good.

Now the bard struggled for new loans, but the banks said no, and in August the company was in

an acute liquidity crisis.

Now the situation was so different from what the CEO had told the shareholders, so the Oslo

Stock Exchange (OSE) gave Kvaerner an penalty of a half million US $ for breach on the

disclosure requirement.

Kjell Almskog didnt tell about the financial difficulties of the Kvaerner Group, and now they

were suddenly fighting against bankruptcy in day to day operations.

Kvaerner merge with Aker Maritime

After two months with negotiation with banks and investors Kvaerner has agreed to merge with

its main shareholder and industry rival, Aker Maritime. Kvaerner is saved from chapter 8.

The news brought Kvaerners long-running battle against bankruptcy to an end, though the future

was still uncertain for Kvaerners 5,000 employees, 7,000 of them in the UK.

The rescue plan was made by the chairman of Aker Maritime, Kjell Inge Rokke, who have

previous attempt to merge his firm with Kvaerner, but have been strongly resisted by both

Kvaerners management and its board of directors. Mr. Rokke owns more than 50% of the shares

in Aker Maritime and is now the most powerful man in Kvaerner.

Kvaerner, which was suffering a serious cash crunch that would have brought it to its knees in

under a week, had repeatedly called on Mr Rokke to bail it out, but his refusal to step in without

being properly rewarded had been consistent.

But Kvaerner had to accept Mr. Rokkes deal that implied that Aker Maritime will own about

50% of Kvaerner. Aker Maritime injected NOK .8 bn in net assets, raised

another NOK .5 bn through two direct issues and renegotiated NOK 8.6 bn of Kvaerners debt.

The group decided to adopt the Aker Kvaerner brand for the entire group.

Internal problems in Aker Kvaerner

Kvaerner shares rose 40% by lunchtime in Oslo. The result was a financially stronger Kvaerner,

and most investors thought that this was the end of many bad years for Kvaerner.

But the internal problems started from the first day. From the beginning Kvaerner was negative

to Aker. They didnt really wanted to merge with Aker, they just did because there was no other

solution out of the crisis. Kvaerner wanted to have all the control and on the other side Mr.

Rokke wanted to have as much power as he could get. And with the Russian oil firm Yukos,

which owns just less than a quarter of Kvaerner, in the back Mr. Rokke became the new CEO of

the board.

In 00 Aker Kvaerner still had a huge liquidity problem, so the company kept selling asset to

earn revenues. The debt was a bigger problem than anyone had thought, and in the end of 00

came the message. Aker Kvaerner had again a liquidity cries.

All January have the board had meetings with the banks and investors. Yukos oil want a huge

downsizing of the company, but Mr. Rokke and the rest of the board want share capital

augmentation. The board has announced that it can be a problem to pay salary to the workers the

15th of February.

Aker Kvaerner is struggling every day to avoid bankruptcy.

What could Aker Kvaerner have done to avoid the liquidity crises?

During a period of 6 years Kvaerner went thru expanding strategy, cut of dividends, increase in

share outstanding, restructuring and downsizing, merge with Aker Maritime, internal problems

and the company had three differnt CEOs.

For the first I think that before a company thrie to erxpand its business, it should have full control over its existings

operations. With this I mean that Kvaerner should have got there already existing industries more

profitable, so when the wanted to expand they hadnt needed to borrow so much, and the risks

had been much lower if the investments went wrong.

At least a company which has to cut the dividends and increase shares outstanding at the same

time should never borrow money to invest in new industries. Of course its possible to earn a lot

of money, but its a risk that a huge company like Kvaerner never should have take. When you

are a CEO for 5000 workers and many thousands shareholders you have a responsibility, and

then I dont think its responsible to act like Kvaerner did.

Some companies dont pay dividends, but these companies usually do other things to increase

the per share value, like for example share buybacks. What Kvaerner did when they cut

dividends and on the same time increased share outstanding, was to decrease the per share value

with double effect. And by getting so much debt they will in the future decrease their instrinct

value. All this is important for way Kvaerner had an enormously decrease in shareholders value

from 16 to 001.

Her is some of Kvaerners key share figures that shows this effect very clearly.

Dividend

00100011817

Dividend per share (NOK)1)00007.00

Market capitalisation, number of shareholders and number of share adjusted for dilution effects

00100011817

Adjusted number of share at 1 December 1)106 6 16106 6 1668 1 6448 74 7848 74 78

Average number of shares1)106 6 168 75 5658 55 68648 74 7848 74 78

Number of shareholders 56018 8817 4018 811 5

Market capitalisation at 1 December (NOK millions)6 66510 1106 16 104

Movement in share price 1)

Amounts in NOK

00100011817

Price of A shares 1 December8.656.515.5114.687.

High6.414.150.41.065.

Low5.76.57.857.8.4

Price of B shares 1 DecemberN/AN/A1.5111.806.

HighN/A1.0140.41.16.4

LowN/A7.0.5.78.

1) Adjusted for dilution effects of subsequent share splits, options granted, bonus issues and stock dividend issues.

) Pay out ratio = (Dividend/Net profit)

) Preliminary

When they started the restructuring and downsizing in 1, I think they did the only reasonable

thing they could do. They tried to pay back debt and make their business profitable again, but it

seemed as this was to late.

When they in the end of 001 merged with Aker Maritime they had a new change to get on the

road again, but I think they were unlucky with the time. The year that followed after September

11th wasnt an easy period to improve the business.

To days idea of selling even more stocks is very short dated, and I really dont see how Aker

Kvaerner will be able to pay back the debt of more than a half billion US$.

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