The billion dollar takeover with an eye to Australia’s nascent offshore wind market

Cyan Renewables, a Singapore-based company that describes itself as the world’s first “pure play” company specialising in the provision of offshore wind farm vessels, has won shareholder approval for a $1.1 billion takeover of Australian listed company MMA Offshore.

The takeover, which follows nearly a year of negotiations, will add another 20 or so vessels to the Cyan fleet, and comes ahead of an anticipated boom in offshore wind projects through the Asia region, and particularly in Australia.

Cyan first approached the Perth-based MMA Offshore in October last year, initially with an offer pitched at $1.68 a share, which was subsequently raised on four occasions to the final agreed price of $2.7 a share – adding an extra $400 million to the transaction value. The company’s share were trading at just 50c in May, 2022.

MMA Offshore initially serviced the oil and gas industry, and still sees some half a trillion dollars worth of new oil and gas development in coming years.

But it also landed its first offshore wind contract in 2020 and has also entered the sub-sea market. The growing offshore wind sector already accounts for 25 per cent of its revenue, and its vessels are nearing 95 per cent utilisation. It predicts some 5,000 offshore wind turbines will be installed in the Asia Pacific region in coming years.

Cyan, which was only established in 2022, sees MMA Offshore as an entry into the Australian market, which has or is about to establish six new offshore wind zones, and where Victoria has set a target of at least 9 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity, with other states also keen to build.

MMA delivers vessel and subsea support to offshore wind farm developments and its services include field preparation, survey, geophysical and light geotechnical services, inspection and light construction support.