Babcock Offshore to exit market??
 

Just listened to the quarterly call and the CEO says they will see out the existing contracts when asked. Not sure how that aligns with the Flight Global article.

Yep as he said he doesn't want to get into a bidding war with CHC and Bristow undercutting each other in a race to the bottom, both of which are recording big losses in the UK sector.
Babcock are the main offshore operator in Australia so a bit different out there.

I wouldn't say they are the "main" offshore operator Blackhawk 9. CHC has as many if not more aircraft in offshore ops than Babcock in Australia.

FYI Babcock lost $19m AUD in the year to April 2019. Some of that is probably operating loss. Not sure how long big Cock in UK is going to keep donating cash to little Cock in Australia?

I think CHC has 3 x 92's with Shell in Broome, 3 x 139's and 1 x 189 in Karratha , I think that's it in offshore now , some 92's , 139's and a 189 all returned in last year, Babcock has 2 x 92's , 2 x 175's and 5 x 139's on 4 different contracts in 4 locations.

The timing of the article is curious. Couple of big contracts close to award time. Misrepresent what was said. Sow the seeds of doubt in some minds. Surely not.

CHC has 2x AW189 in KTA. The 2 H175s for Babcock are in Dili, not Australia. Is Babcock really losing $19m in Australia?

Mmm, it does make you wonder. Is it a really bad written piece of journalism, or is there a deliberate attempt to place misinformation into the public domain?

The February Trading Update, available from the Babcock website, states (with my emphasis):
"Oil and gas continues to be a tough market. The three large providers of helicopter services who operate worldwide in oil and gas have all emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with reduced debt and written-down assets. This has effectively reset global market pricing levels, forcing us to respond quickly to remain competitive. We will also exit our oil and gas businesses in Ghana and Congo."

It appears there's no stated intent to exit O&G, just exit business in Africa. Very different to the clickbait headline generated by FlightGlobal :ugh:

There doesn't seem to be a story here other than Babcock isn't planning to bid any new contracts.

I'm curious: are CHC, PHI, and BRS actually bidding or flying in Ghana and Congo? Or is Babcock losing out to more local players?

I hate to dispel rumours of "misinformation" and subterfuge, but it's a report on the trading update, nothing more, nothing less. I'd take offence at the "bad written journalism" line too, if it wasn't so er.... 'bad written'. (And clickbait headline? Hardly.)
Here's a section - one of several, if anyone wants to wade through the transcript of the call - that is, at the very least, very open to interpretation, on Babcock's future in oil and gas:

Robin Speakman - Shore Capital Markets
Just to clarify, it sounds very much like from the statement this morning that you are actually pulling out entirely of aviation in the oil and
gas market. Is that correct? And further to that, the assets that are utilised in oil and gas, you’ve kind of partly answered this but can you
move some of those assets into other areas in aviation? Does that have an impact on next year’s CapEx in aviation and indeed on asset
sales as well?

Archie Bethel
I think the well-run route of oil and gas aviation for us is that we don’t intend to invest further, or stay in that market and I think we’ve been
steadily over the last four years now decreasing the size of that business. So - and I think as we emphasised, last year in the capital markets
theirs is part of adjacent markets, adjacent businesses, we are always looking at what’s the long-term future of that?

You should try listening to the associated webcast all the way through before casting your aspersions. Bethel clearly states that the company has lost a number of major bids, lost considerable money on S-92 leases, and says they will not invest anymore money into the oil and gas business and will complete existing contracts.

So, this from the quarterly call:

Archi Bethel
I think the well-run route of oil and gas aviation for us is that we don’t intend to invest further, or stay in that market and I think we’ve been steadily over the last four years now decreasing the size of that business. So - and I think as we emphasised, last year in the capital markets theirs is part of adjacent markets, adjacent businesses, we are always looking at what’s the long-term future of that?
In terms of the assets, we don’t - I mean one of the positive things is, we don’t have any at the moment, we don’t have a big issue with excess assets so we’ve done pretty well at getting rid of these as we’ve needed to.
I think on the 225s, we’ve only got the one, so we have reached a - we have redeployed some of these and we’ll continue to look at that as a possibility. The S-92s are a bit different. They’re huge machines, mainly suited to search and rescue. Oil and gas and then search and rescue. We will look at, is there options to deploy these and actually, the writing down of asset - of the lease values helps that process. So we’ll continue to look at - continue to look at those whenever we can.
But I say at the moment, we don’t - we expect them to be in contract. Their written down values, we expect them to be on contracts in Aberdeen.
Okay, well once again, thank you for joining the call this morning. I think overall, the business is in good shape. I think the numbers that we have confirmed in guidance today are pretty much in line with what we said they would be.
We’re being pretty upfront about the continuing issues in oil and gas and I think we have acted very quickly to address that so they should not have an impact - any long-term impact on the business and that’s the most important thing. We’ll update you on all of this at the year end in May so thank you again for joining us this morning.
Ends
5 February Trading Update 2020 Babcock International Group PLC

OK I'll make it easier for you to actually quote some text. Here's a link to the transcript. Care to extract where Bethel states that they are exiting O&G altogether?

https://www.babcockinternational.com...12.02.2020.pdf

See below, highlighted and underlined.

Robin Speakman - Shore Capital Markets Just to clarify, it sounds very much like from the statement this morning that you are actually pulling out entirely of aviation in the oil and gas market. Is that correct? And further to that, the assets that are utilised in oil and gas, you’ve kind of partly answered this but can you move some of those assets into other areas in aviation? Does that have an impact on next year’s CapEx in aviation and indeed on asset sales as well?

Archi Bethel - I think the well-run route of oil and gas aviation for us is that we don’t intend to invest further, or stay in that market and I think we’ve been steadily over the last four years now decreasing the size of that business. So - and I think as we emphasised, last year in the capital markets theirs is part of adjacent markets, adjacent businesses, we are always looking at what’s the long-term future of that? In terms of the assets, we don’t - I mean one of the positive things is, we don’t have any at the moment, we don’t have a big issue with excess assets so we’ve done pretty well at getting rid of these as we’ve needed to. I think on the 225s, we’ve only got the one, so we have reached a - we have redeployed some of these and we’ll continue to look at that as a possibility. The S-92s are a bit different. They’re huge machines, mainly suited to search and rescue. Oil and gas and then search and rescue. We will look at, is there options to deploy these and actually, the writing down of asset - of the lease values helps that process. So we’ll continue to look at - continue to look at those whenever we can. But I say at the moment, we don’t - we expect them to be in contract. Their written down values, we expect them to be on contracts in Aberdeen.

I haven’t read the transcript- apologies - but reading what has been extracted my read is they will by default be exiting in a phased manner. They don’t plan to bid on any new contracts and will complete the existing ones, so once they are all completed Babcock will no longer be in the O&G market.

I don't read it as being totally clear cut, more a shot across the bows of the Oil Co's that Babcock won't be a player if things don't change wrt ROI. I'm sure all operator CEOs would make similar statements regarding current rates. It's how that message is put across that will no doubt differ.

Time will of course tell who here has the more correct interpretation :)

A shot across the bows? Mmm, that would be like using a potato gun!

Kicked out of Ghana more like. Heliconia have taken over Babcock Italia’s contract in Takoradi, locally believed Babcock had been operating for several years without proper local approvals and getting away with it. Congo same perhaps?

1 x 189 was handed back late last year and the 175's are part of the Aust operation based in Dili on oz rego with oz crews