Friede Goldman Halter sells vessel repair unit

Friede Goldman Halter Inc., which provides support for the offshore oil industry, announced it has agreed to sell its vessel repair unit to Bollinger Shipyards Inc. for $80 million. The all-cash deal with the Lockport, La.-based company, which is expected to be completed in July 2000, is structured as an asset sale and is subject to certain regulatory conditions. "We undertook to evaluate the strategic fit of each of our business lines," said J. L. Holloway, company chairman and CEO. "We determined that the vessel repair business did not fit our primary and long-term focus on large-scale offshore energy projects, highly complex commercial and government shipbuilding, and engineered products. The vessel repair business is an operating unit of Halter Marine, Friede Goldman Halter's Vessel segment, and consists of five vessel repair and maintenance facilities devoted in Louisiana and Texas. "We plan to focus our six vessel construction shipyards on capitalizing on Halter's experience and its position as the fourth-largest shipbuilder in the United States," Holloway said. The company expects the $80 million transaction and an additional $33 million in tax refunds to be collected during 2000 to provide "significant additional liquidity for Friede Goldman Halter as it enters a strengthening marketplace."