Bollinger to acquire Halter Marine; Halter begins NOAA ship construction

Sea Power, Jul 2002 by Burgess, Richard R

THE INDUSTRIAL BASE

Bollinger Shipyards Inc.-a builder of small-to-medium-- sized offshore and inland vessels-has signed a $48 million contract with Friede Goldman Halter Inc. to acquire Halter Marine, which has built several similar classes of ships.

If the sale is approved, Bollinger will acquire the assets and operations of Halter Marine, which include seven small shipyards in Mississippi-Halter-- Pascagoula, Halter-Moss Point, Moss Point Marine, Halter-Port Bienville, Halter-Central, Gulfport-East, and Halter-Three Rivers-and one in Louisiana, Halter-Lockport.

Bollinger currently operates three new-construction yards and 11 repair and conversion yards. The acquisitions will give Bollinger 22 facilities with 43 drydocks spread from Pascagoula, Miss., to Houston, Texas. Bollinger acquired Halter's repair division in August 2000.

"We are very excited about this pending acquisition as it will expand our capacity and capabilities in new construction, establish our visibility and presence in new foreign and domestic markets, and complement our extensive inventory of designs," said Donald Bollinger, chairman and CEO of Bollinger Inc. "Best of all, we will retain substantially all of Halter's dedicated employees, thereby gaining hundreds of highly talented and skilled designers and shipbuilders whose excellent reputation is known around the world."

The acquisition, pursuant to approval of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, is expected to be completed in late July or early August 2002.

Bollinger is the builder of the Navy's Cyclone-class coastal patrol ships and the Coast Guard's Barracuda-class patrol boats. Halter is the builder of the Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ships, the surveillance ship USS Impeccable, the Mark V special operations craft used by SEAL forces, and the Ambassador Mk III patrol craft (for Egypt).

In another development, Halter Marine has begun construction of a stateof-the-art fisheries research vessel for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The MN Oscar Dyson is named for a wellknown fishing activist in Alaska, and an industry advisor to government, who pioneered the expansion of the commercial fishing of crab, shrimp, and pollock. Dyson also was a founding partner of All Alaskan Seafoods (later sold to Tysons Seafoods), which became the first company controlled by fishermen who owned both the vessels and the canneries.

Halter is scheduled to deliver the 63.6-meter-long Oscar Dyson within 36 months for a price of $38.3 million. If NOAA exercises options to build three more fisheries research vessels of the same class, the contract's value to Halter could increase to more than $165 million.

The Oscar Dyson will be homeported in Kodiak, Alaska, and operated by civilians and officers of the NOAA Commissioned Corps under the auspices of NOAA's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations.

By RICHARD R. BURGESS

Managing Editor