Tidewater, Inc.’s Ratings Unaffected by Wilson Sons Offshore Acquisition in International Shipping News 25/02/2026 The ratings of Tidewater, Inc. are unaffected following the announcement that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wilson Sons Ultratug Participações S.A. and its affiliate Atlantic Offshore Services S.A. (collectively, WSUT), according to Fitch Ratings. Tidewater will acquire the outstanding shares of WSUT in an all-cash transaction at an enterprise value of approximately $500 million, including the assumption of WSUT’s existing debt. Fitch currently rates Tidewater’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) ‘B+’ and its senior unsecured notes ‘BB-‘ with a Recovery Rating of ‘RR3’. The Rating Outlook is Stable. The transaction expands Tidewater’s Brazilian platform supply vessel (PSV) fleet from six vessels to 28 and brings the total global fleet size to 231 vessels, including crew boats, tugboats and maintenance vessels. Tidewater will become a major provider of Brazilian-built PSVs which will support continued growth in the region and provide opportunities to import additional vessels into Brazil. Assuming the transaction closes by the end of 2Q26, Tidewater’s management team expects the WSUT business to generate approximately $220 million in revenue and generate a gross margin of approximately 58% over the first 12 months while enhancing FCF generation. Fitch views the transaction favorably as it is expected to have minimal impact on midcycle gross EBITDA leverage metrics. The transaction also supports cost of capital savings through WSUT’s existing low-cost debt and establishes Tidewater as a main provider of PSVs to support Brazil’s attractive offshore energy market. Tidewater’s ‘B+’ IDR reflects the company’s large, high-quality fleet and diversified global operations, which support Fitch’s forecast of positive FCF, adequate liquidity and mid-cycle EBITDA leverage of 2.0x. These factors are partially offset by the high volatility in day rates, vessel utilization and EBITDA generation within the offshore energy sector. Source: Fitch Ratings 2026-02-25 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share