Viking Supply Ships A/S

Viking Supply Ships AS (VSS) was established 15 August 1946 in Kristiansand under the name of Excelsior. Subsequently the company changed its name to Bendt Rasmussens Rederi and a tonnage consisting mainly of tankers. At the end of 1973, Excelsior left the tanker market to join the fast-growing offshore market for supply vessels and Viking Supply Ships was established in 1974 as a marketing organization.

In 1989 Christen Sveaas and other investors acquired all shares in Excelsior. Later that same year Excelsior was renamed to Viking Supply Ships AS with its head office in Kristiansand.

VSS’s fleet of supply vessels grew throughout the nineties both through acquisition of new vessels and second hand tonnage. In 1995, Viking invested in the standby-vessel market through the purchase of two companies owning 26 standby- and supply ships. The entire fleet of supply vessels was sold in 1997. In the period from 1990 to 1996 Viking was also a rig-owning company (Jack-ups).

Viking’s activities gradually expanded from focusing purely on the offshore industry to also including investment activities in various areas. The board of directors therefore found it appropriate to organize the activities in two different companies. The investment activities were gathered in Kistefos in Oslo in 1998, whilst the offshore activities were gathered in Viking Supply Ships AS in Arendal. After two years in Arendal, Viking Supply Ships moved back to Kristiansand in January 2000.

In 1998 Viking ordered three combined AHTS/Icebreakers in a joint venture with the Swedish company Rederi AB Transatlantic.

In September 2002, a joint venture was established between Viking Standby Ltd. and BUE North Sea Ltd. The new company BUE Viking Ltd. Owned and operated more than 50 vessels and had a total of 965 employees. In August 2004, Viking bought all the shares of BUE North Sea Ltd. and thus made BUE Viking Ltd. a wholly owned subsidiary of Viking Supply Ships AS. In June 2005, BUE Viking Ltd. changed name to Viking Offshore Services. This company was sold in May 2007.

In December 2004 Viking Supply Ships acquired the AHTS “Odin Viking” through a charter agreement with the Italian Owners Finarge. The vessel was taken over by Partsrederiet Odin Viking DA in May 2006 in a joint venture with Transatlantic.

In August 2006 VSS acquired 100% of the share capital of SBS Aberdeen Ltd, the parent company of SBS Marine Ltd (SBS). SBS operates 5 platform supply vessels (PSVs) of VS-470 MK II design.

Trans Viking Icebreaking & Offshore AS

Trans Viking Icebreaking & Offshore AS was established in March 1998. The company was a 50/50 joint venture between Viking Supply Ships AS and Rederi AB Transatlantic.

The three combined AHTS and icebreakers Tor Viking II, Balder Viking and Vidar Viking of KMAR 808 ICE design was ordered by Trans Viking Icebreaking & Offshore AS. These vessels are linked to a general contract with the Swedish Maritime Administration for icebreaking in the Baltic Sea from January through March as required and the contract is expiring 2015 with future options.

Viking Supply Ships AS in Kristiansand holds the chartering and marketing responsibility for the vessels, while Viking Supply Ships AB in Gothenburg holds the crewing and technical management responsibility.

The joint venture further ordered 4 new anchor handlers of VS 4622CD design for delivery from Zamakona ship yard in Spain. These vessels have been delivered in the period 2010 to 2012.

Viking Supply Ships A/S

Kistefos became the major owner of TransAtlantic in August 2010 with just above 50 percent of the votes and capital. TransAtlantic acquired the outstanding shares in Trans Viking and become the sole owner of the offshore vessels. This gave TransAtlantic the full operations as well as the possibility to optimize the governance of the operations and coordinate it with its concept for arctic offshore.

Viking Supply Ships A/S (VSS) was founded in December 2010 under the name Trans Viking Offshore A/S as a subsidiary to TransAtlantic to become the parent company for all offshore activities in the group. In June 2011 the office was established in Copenhagen and since October we have a permanent address at Islands Brygge in the center of the city.

Today we have offices in four countries. The Copenhagen office, which is our corporate headquarters, is also operating five vessels registered in the Danish International Register (DIS). In Stenungsund our office is responsible for the management of the three vessels working for SMA and also the Ship Management of the five Swedish state owned icebreakers. Kristiansand is mainly our marketing and chartering office, close connected to our Norwegian business partners.

Our office in Moscow is marketing our services in the giant Russian market and has in 2011 concluded our first contract for Vidar Viking to work in Sakhalin from mid 2012. In October 2011 the shares of SBS Marine Ltd (Viking Supply Ships Ltd) were acquired from Kistefos. SBS is holding a fleet of 5 PSVs. By that we were also represented in Aberdeen in Scotland which gives us local presence in the UK offshore market.

From the start of VSS A/S in Denmark in June 2011 the responsibility for the operation has grown to include 18 offshore/icebreaking vessels which are controlled out of the Copenhagen office. The onshore staff is just above 50 and we have 600 seamen employed in our vessels.