Tidewater enters the back half of the year as the largest listed owner of offshore support vessels, and the investment debate is no longer whether the fleet can raise prices. Leading-edge term fixtures already moved higher, and the closed Wilson Sons Ultratug purchase adds a local-content platform that the company could not assemble from a thin Brazil footprint. The purchase was struck at $500 million. The tension is that reported earnings are leaking through tax, currency swings, and conflict-related operating costs even as the commercial book firms. Shareholders are being asked to pay for a tightening vessel market while the income statement still looks like a mid-cycle stall.
Vessel pricing is doing the work that the income statement is not. Newly fixed term contracts printed a leading-edge rate of $24341. That commercial step-up is the cleanest evidence that the offshore support market is still tight. Net income attributable compressed to $22 million. A tax bill consumed more than half of pretax profit, and last year's foreign-exchange gain disappeared. The Americas book also shrank, which means the rate story is not uniform across the map.
Second-quarter revenue was $342 million, essentially unchanged from the year-ago period. Free cash flow recovered to $64 million as drydock work slipped later in the year. Management narrowed the full-year revenue band after the Wilson close moved past June. The reporting period ended June 30, 2026. The question for the next year is whether Brazil cash and higher fixture rates can outrun tax leakage and Middle East cost drag, or whether the equity is already capitalizing a cycle that the after-tax line has not yet earned.