Investment philosophy

Investment report March 2026 - View into the portfolio

Pearl of the North Sea – DeepOcean

DeepOcean is one of the leading providers of services in the offshore energy industry. The company supports the entire life cycle of offshore installations: from surveying, engineering and project management to inspection, maintenance, repair and recycling.

Its customer base includes major oil and energy companies such as Shell, Equinor, AkerBP, Ørsted, RWE and Iberdrola. DeepOcean's business is less cyclical than its end markets, as the majority of its revenue and profits come from the IMR (inspection, maintenance, repair) segment. Only an oil price between $30 and $40 per barrel would pose challenges for the company.

DeepOcean is a clear market leader, as evidenced by a 43% success rate in tenders and a 7% increase in market share in recent years. The high level of customer satisfaction is illustrated by a recent order from Equinor: the group deliberately decided not to issue a public tender, as quality and reliability were more important to it than price.

This reliability is the result of highly trained personnel on the one hand and a significant advantage over competitors on the other: DeepOcean pursues an "asset-light" business model. The company owns only two of its 16 vessels. The rest are chartered on a flexible basis. This enables a high degree of operational flexibility, which is reflected in a 90% flexible cost base. This benefits not only customers, but also the financial figures: capital investments amount to only 1% of revenue, and the cash conversion rate is a strong 80%.

The market in which DeepOcean operates is in a phase of consolidation. As a major player, DeepOcean has extensive experience in integrating new companies, which is primarily driven by its owner, Triton. Triton has been invested since 2016 and is likely to realise its profits in the next two to three years. This is a key event factor for DeepOcean.

The base scenario envisages an IPO, for which we consider a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.5x to be necessary (currently approx. 3.5x). We also expect EBITDA after leasing costs to rise from the current €170m to over €200m. An IPO would significantly reduce the company's risk, enable early repayment of the bond or positively influence the bond price through a rating upgrade. We expect the LTV to fall from 45% to 30% if successful.

Our yield to maturity is 6.0%. High customer satisfaction, combined with the asset-light model and the option of an IPO, reinforces our conviction that we have made a solid investment. The ACATIS Euro High Yield Fund holds around 2.2% of its NAV in DeepOcean.

Kind regards

Tobias Engl