The following is the text of a press release issued by Leevac Shipyards LLC:
(HOUMA, La.) — LEEVAC Shipyards, LLC through its newly created subsidiary LEEVAC Shipyards Houma, LLC (LEEVAC) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all assets of Quality Shipyards, Inc. (Quality) located at 3201 Earhart Street in Houma Louisiana from Tidewater Marine, LLC (NYSE: TDW).
The acquisition of assets includes 35 acres of industrial property located on 2,500 feet of waterfront along the intracoastal waterway, 4 drydocks (the largest measuring 4,200 tons of capacity), 100,000 square feet of covered production facilities and several large track cranes.
Christian Vaccari, President and Chief Executive Officer of LEEVAC said, "I want to personally welcome all of the employees of Quality into the LEEVAC family. My message to the employees of Quality has been, and will continue to be that while Tidewater's primary business is the ownership and operation of offshore service and supply vessels, LEEVAC's core business is ship construction and ship repair. You all have the opportunity to play a vitally important role in the growth of our company."
Three years ago, LEEVAC entered into the repair business with the opening of our Lake Charles location. Listening to our customers' requests for a repair facility east of Lake Charles prompted our search. When the opportunity arose for us to buy the Quality facility, it made perfect sense. The location, management team, workforce and assets combined with our successful business relationship with Tidewater made this an easy decision for us.
The Houma facility is located closer to many of the shore based operations of our customers who operate in the Gulf of Mexico and inland waterways and also provides us some geographic diversification for our repair business. Additionally, we plan to make investments in the facility that will allow us to expand our new construction business."
Billy Brown, Tidewater's Vice President for Engineering and Technical Services, commented that "Tidewater was very pleased to reach an agreement with LEEVAC in regards to the assets and ship repair business of Quality Shipyards. Many of the employees of Quality that will have an opportunity to join LEEVAC have been part of the Tidewater family for many years and we offer them our very best wishes in the years to come. Tidewater has worked with LEEVAC on numerous new construction projects, including the LDS 300 DE series of deepwater PSVs. We consider Chris and the rest of the LEEVAC team to be high quality professionals and we look forward to continuing to work with LEEVAC on our on-going new construction projects. We also look forward to developing a ship repair relationship with LEEVAC."
LEEVAC Shipyards, LLC is privately owned world-class maritime construction shipbuilder headquartered in Covington, LA. Louisiana. Since 1965, the company has specialized in new construction and repair of Platform Supply Vessels (PSV), Offshore Supply Vessels (OSV), Tugs and Workboats, Barges, and Specialty Vessels and Inland Waterway Vessels. LEEVAC owns and operates three shipyards located in the western and central coastal areas of Louisiana. The new construction yard is located in Jennings and the two repair yards are located in Lake Charles and Houma, Louisiana.
