Keppel Limited and Seatrium have agreed that the segregated account arrangement be terminated, announced the former on April 11. This comes as the former has “no further liability in respect of the identified contingent liabilities”.
The arrangement refers to the retained Keppel Offshore and Marine (Keppel O&M) consideration shares that were placed in a segregated account under the terms of the merger with Sembcorp Marine , as Seatrium was known then. The retained stake was to fund claims by the combined entity for “certain identified contingent liabilities” for up to 48 months from the completion of the combination.
As at Dec 31, 2024, the cash balance in the segregated account amounted to around $274.75 million. The number of remaining retained consideration shares stood at 68.6 million. According to Keppel’s annual report for the FY2024 ended Dec 31, 2024, there were no claims received in 2023 and 2024.
The termination of the segregated account arrangement is not expected to have a material impact on Keppel’s net tangible assets (NTA) per share or the earnings per share (EPS) for the current financial year.
Under the terms of the merger, Keppel received 36.85 billion shares of the enlarged SembMarine group representing a 54% stake in the enlarged entity. Of these, Keppel distributed 49% of the shares in-specie. The remaining 5% were retained in this segregated account.
In FY2024, Keppel posted a net loss of $124 million for its legacy O&M assets and discontinued operations. This was partly due to fair value losses from Keppel’s Seatrium shares compared to a gain in FY2023.
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As at 9.07am, shares in Keppel are trading 17 cents lower or 2.82% down at $5.85. Shares in Seatrium are trading 8 cents lower or 4.6% down at $1.66.
