German offshore windfarm specialist Heli Service International has warned in its 2023 accounts of a “strained” liquidity position on the back of heavy financial support for its overseas sister operations, particularly in Taiwan.
However, with the planned start of operations in Taipei this year the demands for further support will be significantly reduced, the company believes. This, coupled with a forecast increase in flight activity as new contracts come on line, has Heli Service looking confidently to the future.
Published on the German companies register on 6 March, the financial statements – the most recent available, covering the period to 31 December 2023 – disclose that the “strong organic growth” seen by the operator in recent years has not been without a cost.
“The company’s growth places significant demands on liquidity, which has proven particularly challenging due to the financial support provided to its foreign sister companies,” the report states.
“The establishment of the site in Taiwan tied up a significant amount of liquidity and capacity in 2023 and 2024.”
An air operator certificate for the business, Heli Service Operational Company Taiwan, in which the Emden-based firm holds a 19% stake, was obtained in December 2024, “which lays the foundation” for the start of commercial operations.
As such, Heli Service’s “regular cash support will be reduced to a minimum and is estimated to be only minimal for 2025”, it says.
However, the financial statements do not reveal how much financial support it has so far provided to the Taiwanese unit nor whether this has decreased as forecast.
Nonetheless, the pressure on the firm’s liquidity is clear. In the “appendix for the 2023 financial year”, the report states that the “liquidity situation can be described as strained”.
It notes the expectation “of the company’s continued existence” is founded on the “assumption that the future projects planned by management can be realised as expected and that the cash support of the foreign sister companies is reduced to a minimum and remains minimal until 2025”.
While pointing to the risks, it adds: “However, we fundamentally assume that the company will continue as a going concern.”
For the year to end December 2023, revenue rose to €38 million ($42 million), up from €31 million in 2022 as new projects came on line.
Additional new contracts were won in the period “including one with a customer who anticipates a flight volume of approximately 1,000 flight hours per year, as well as the Arcadis Ost development project [in the Baltic Sea] for another customer”, it says.
“HeliService also won two major new tenders for the following years, 2024 and 2025.”
It forecasts total revenue of €49 million in 2024 and €48 million in 2025, leading to earnings before tax of €0.4 million and €1.3 million, respectively.
These “significantly positive results” allied to “cost-cutting measures” will “set a milestone for further business success in the future”, it says.
With multiple new offshore wind projects planned in the North and Baltic seas in coming years “HeliService expects a sharp increase in helicopter flights. We therefore anticipate healthy and profitable growth in flight operations in the coming years,” it says.
Heli Service International did not respond to a request for further comment, however.
Equally unclear is the German company’s interest in what it describes as its US sister company HeliService USA.
The 2022 accounts showed it held a 49% stake in the US operation, but there is no mention of any holding in the latest financial statements.
Heli Service International did not respond to questions about the shareholding.
But the ownership structure of the US operator – which services offshore wind contracts from a base in Quonset, Rhode Island – is a complex one.
Originally registered as Scottsdale Helicopters, based in Arizona, the firm in 2022 changed its name to HeliService USA LLC.
Arizona company registration documents list Michael Tosi as president and chief executive but as of 4 March 2024 the “sole member”, or owner, is HeliService Holding US Inc, a company with a registered office in Boston, Massachusetts but incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware in 2023.
No details of the ownership of HeliService Holding US are publicly available, however.
An earlier US business, Heli Service International Inc, was formed in Rhode Island in December 2021 by Antonius Schaeken, one of the two directors of the German parent firm.
Its corporate registration was revoked by the Rhode Island authorities in early 2023 for failing to file its annual report.
HeliService USA did not respond to questions about its ownership.
