Tidewater x Wilson Son's Ultratug Offshore Transaction
Tidewater Management Continues to Add Significant Value of Equity Owners
Tidewater x UltraTug Merger
“We think the M&A market, though different from the market where Tidewater bought Swire or Solstad, still represents attractive pricing to consolidate the global fleet further. If Tidewater is able to pay $15-$20M per vessel ($0.37/$0.50 on the dollar) for a good fleet with the ability to slash G&A and improve their market share we think that is a net benefit that should not be ignored.” – TheDailyCompounder 11/19/2025
Tidewater Management Conversation 1/2026 Here
Introduction
Tidewater and the OSV business broadly have been considered on par with the auto industry in terms of its high capital requirements, cyclical earnings profile and a general lack of discipline. Prior to 2021 we would have echoed the same sentiment. Since Tidewater merged with Gulfmark in 2018 this narrative has been slowly eroded in part through cyclical forces as offshore capex increased post the COVID era troughing and partly from industry consolidation led by Tidewater.
Tidewater has proven itself a leader in the OSV space not just by its market share and fleet size but in the discipline it has introduced to contract structure and value add M&A. With Tidewater and Gulfmark’s balance sheet post their Chapter 11 restructuring they very well could have done what Valaris has done in the drillship market, namely, take subpar contract terms simply because the newly restructured balance sheet allows for it.
Rather than lock up vessels at unattractive rates Tidewater has pushed leading day rates and shortened the contract timeline to allow for constant contract roll off and repricing as day rates continue to inflect higher. In 2023 Tidewater acquired Solstad & Swire Pacific which were done at a fraction of the assets true value and associated earnings power.
