Speaking to the Seatrade Maritime News Podcast Quintin V. Kneen, President, CEO and Director of Tidewater, explained what the latest acquisition will bring to Tidewater and what lies ahead for the company as it celebrates its 70^th anniversary.   In recent years Tidewater has grown rapidly through M&A and its latest deal for Wilson Sons Ultratug Offshore announced earlier this year is currently working towards completion. The acquisition will add 22 vessels to Tidewater’s fleet, 19 of which are Brazilian-built a key point said Kneen.     “Brazil is going to be a very strong market over the next several years and this gives us a strong entry point with a great fleet, great people, well trained mariners,” he told the Seatrade Maritime News Podcast.

With 19 locally built vessels Tidewater secures its position in the Brazilian market where it has previously been an international operator, with the risk of vessels being off-hired in favour of local tonnage under the country’s cabotage laws.“Now with this base of 19 vessels, we're a permanent fixture in Brazil and it allows us to bring in extra vessels. When you have a Brazilian built vessel, you can bring in other vessels that are international-flagged and get that same protection. So, it's great from that perspective,” Kneen explained.   The 19 Brazilian-built vessels are all of the same design and constructed at the same yard meaning that equipment is common both for training crew and for maintenance.     The deal is expected to close in the third quarter having already received antitrust approval and according to Kneen the process of transferring bank debt is currently being worked on. Wilson Sons Ultratug Offshore is expected to be fully integrated into Tidewater by early 2027.      With the addition of the Brazilian fleet Tidewater will be the world’s largest owner and operator of offshore support vessels and also the oldest company as it celebrates its 70^th anniversary this year.      However, despite being the world’s largest OSV owner the company would only have market share in the 6 – 7% range and it continues to look to grow further.   “There's a lot more consolidation that could occur in the industry. I don't know that it will, but there's definitely some fleets out there that I would enjoy bringing into the Tidewater family.”   Kneen said that he is always looking at M&A which he believes is the right way to grow the business today. In the past Tidewater has focused on trying to expand in the Gulf of Mexico acquiring more Jones Act vessels but he said prices are too high. As to where Kneen is looking now, “There's other opportunities in Asia and Europe and so we are hopeful to take advantage of those in the coming year.”