Oakley Capital

Seagull & Videotel announce leadership appointments

Phil Page

Industry veteran Manish Singh joins leading maritime knowledge services group as CEO, with Roger Ringstad assuming role of Executive Chairman.

Acquired by Oakley Capital in May 2019, Seagull and Videotel collectively serve over 20,000 ships and marine installations globally, helping develop proficiencies for about a million seafarers across international maritime pools and tonnage types. Between them, these businesses have an unmatched pedigree and diverse experience in maritime learning, competence development and compliance over four decades.

Commenting on the appointments and the vision for the Group, Roger Ringstad said:

“Enhancing safety and efficiency at sea through knowledge and awareness, is at the heart of what we deliver. We want to enter into closer partnerships with our customers and users introducing state of the art technology and developing proficiencies, at sea and ashore.

We are delighted to welcome Manish Singh as CEO of Seagull and Videotel. His appointment adds to our maritime expertise, passion for safety and industry thought leadership. He will focus on developing closer relationships with our clients and will lead on our investments to further to enrich our content, transform our user experience and introduce further digitally enabled solutions.”

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KVH Announces the Sale of Videotel for $90 Million to Focus on Core Strategic Initiatives

Phil Page

Plans to increase its investment in photonic integrated chip technology, AgilePlans acceleration, and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity

MIDDLETOWN, RI – May 13, 2019 – KVH Industries, Inc., (Nasdaq: KVHI), today announced that it has sold its maritime training business, the Videotel group of companies, to an affiliate of Oakley Capital for a base purchase price of $90 million, on a cash-free, debt-free basis, subject to working capital adjustments.  The sale was completed immediately upon execution of definitive agreements.

“As part of our long-term strategic roadmap, we are focusing on the large and growing markets of our core mobile connectivity and inertial navigation businesses,” says Martin Kits van Heyningen, chief executive officer of KVH.  “We intend to use the net proceeds of the sale to invest in three key growth initiatives that we expect will drive significant value creation, as well as to reduce our debt.  Specifically, we plan to invest in the development and commercialization of our photonic integrated chip technology for use in autonomous vehicles and other commercial and military platforms, to support the further acceleration of our AgilePlans (Connectivity as a Service) program, and also to finalize the development and launch of our IoT connectivity solution.  Videotel helped us to penetrate the commercial maritime markets initially, but our strategic approach has evolved to focus on faster growing markets that we believe will produce greater long-term shareholder value.”

To maintain continuity for KVH’s AgilePlans customers, KVH has retained certain rights to continue including the Videotel training content with the AgilePlans program. Management expects to issue revised financial guidance for the second quarter and full fiscal year of 2019 reflecting the sale of Videotel, along with select pro forma disclosures, on or about May 15, followed by an investor conference call.  In light of the anticipated financial impact of the transaction, investors should no longer rely on the guidance previously issued by KVH, which included anticipated revenues and expenses of the Videotel business.

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