Surprise move to take floating wind pioneer BW Ideol private

Oslo-listed BW Offshore, a specialist in floating production systems for the oil and gas sector, is leading a move to delist its floating wind arm BW Ideol after claiming there are better opportunities for a privately held company in the sector.

In its quarterly earnings statement released today (Thursday), BW Offshore revealed that it had led a group holding nearly 85% of the shares in BW Ideol in making a voluntary offer to acquire up the remaining equity, with with the intention of taking the company private and delisting from Euronext Growth Oslo.

In its statement, BW Offshore described BW Ideol as "a global leader in offshore floating wind technology", with more than 12 years of experience from design, execution and development of floating wind projects based on proprietary and patented technology and engineering capabilities.

The company was created in February 2021 when BW Offshore acquired control of French floating wind sector pioneer Ideol, promising to create a “global floating wind champion”.

BW Ideol was initially listed on Euronext Growth to help raise capital raises and boost liquidity in trading of its shares.

But BW Offshore said that the controlling shareholders that made the offer now "consider it unlikely that BW Ideol as a company trading on Euronext Growth will be able to raise new equity on terms that are not highly dilutive for non-participating shareholders in the current equity capital market environment".

The statement continued: "The Initiating Shareholders believe that BW Ideol, if privately held, would benefit from reduced cost and more management time to progress the company. It will also position the company to raise capital from investors that invest in privately held growth companies, including other industrial investors in addition to BW Offshore."

The offer period commenced on 14 November and will last until 28 November. It is expected that the shares will be delisted in December 2023, subject to the offer being completed according to plan, BW Offshore stated.

Co-founded by current CEO Paul de la Gueriviere, Ideol was one the key pioneers of floating wind, and one of a handful of technology developers that put prototypes in the water.

BW Ideol's pioneering projects include the 2MW FloatGen pilot, running for five years off France, and its share in the ownership of the 30MW EolMed demonstrator being built in the French Mediterranean.

The FloatGen pilot is also used as the platform for a first demonstrator project for the offshore production of green hydrogen, in partnership with French technology company Lhyfe.

The "Sealhyfe" floating production platform, which is connected to FloatGen, began producing hydrogen via a 1MW electrolyser in June.

Ideol also has a prototype off Japan, also using its flagship “damping pool” platform technology.