Luxembourg, 26 October 2023: Sterling Active Fund (“SAF”) confirms that on the 26th of October 2023, it successfully exited its position in Fugro N.V. (“Fugro”), marking it the seventh successful exit by SAF.
Fugro N.V. is the market leader in in collecting and analysing data about the earth’s surface. The company carries our technical foundation studies and surveys of development areas and routes for wind energy projects, oil & gas operations at sea, and buildings and infrastructure on land.
The investment in Fugro N.V. was a typical example of an “activist” case for SAF. The opportunity lied in the structuring of the refinancing that was required after six years of a shrinking market in offshore oil & gas. The initial stabilisation of the balance sheet in 2020 allowed management to finalise the clean-up of the company’s portfolio, to further exploit its potential in offshore wind energy and reposition the land business. The second part of the refinancing, in 2022, enabled capital investments aimed at modernising the assets, including remotely operated inspection and data collection vessels. In the same period, under a new Chairman, the Supervisory Board was strengthened with specialists from outside the company’s traditional oil & gas circles.
Over the past three years, the growth in early-stage offshore wind projects combined with a gradual recovery of oil & gas markets enabled Fugro to optimise the utilisation of its modernised fleet. Management has implemented enhanced tender and pricing policies to offset volatility in operating costs. For the third quarter of 2023, the company reported margins at a 10-year high.
In April 2023, the Company share price reached SAF’s target price expectation and we decided to gradually sell the investment after 35 months. SAF made a high double-digit return on this investment.
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Fugro N.V., is the market leader in collecting and analysing data about the earth’s surface. The company is headquartered and listed in the Netherlands.
Sterling Active Fund, is the second fund launched by Sterling Strategic Value in October 2020. SAF is open for subscriptions.
Sterling Strategic Value, is one of Europe’s oldest Activist investors founded in 1999 and with a track record of over 55 successful activist investment entry and exits.