Subscribe
DSO Gets AAA Credit Rating
Damen group's Swedish shipyard, Damen Oskarshamnsvarvet (DSO) has
had its credit rating, as awarded by European credit rating
agency Bisnode, upgraded from B to AAA.
"With only 2.3% of companies in Sweden achieving the highest
possible rating of AAA, this demonstrates that the shipyard is in
excellent financial and commercial health," said a press release
from the Dutch defence, shipbuilding, and engineering
conglomerate.
Flip van der Waal, who was appointed DSO managing director three
years ago, is delighted with the accolade. "No changes were made
to the fabric of the yard following Damen taking on the
ownership, but over the past few years we have substantially
boosted our project management capability, added an operations
manager and changed our commercial approach to improve our
interactions with customers."
"These changes have resulted in improved project control and an
increase of send offers - primarily through increased
participation in the public tenders as over 90% of the yard's
work comes from government departments and agencies," he added.
After a few difficult years in challenging market conditions, the
impact of these changes became noticeable in the second half of
2017 when the yard returned to profitability. The increase in
business carried on into 2018 with the ongoing ideal combination
of long-term contract works and regular repair and maintenance
jobs delivering DSO's best financial results in the past 20
years. The first half of 2019 sees that trend continuing with an
exceptionally busy period.
"The award of the AAA rating following in-depth analysis of DSO's
business model and financial outlook by Bisnode delivers a
resounding vote of confidence in the yard's current strength and
future outlook," claimed the shipyard.
Jun 20, 2019
