Gulf Marine Services Regulatory News (GMS)

Gulf Marine Services PLC

('Gulf Marine Services', 'GMS', 'the Company' or 'the Group')

Covenant Schedule Amendment and Operational Update

Gulf Marine Services (LSE: GMS), the leading provider of advanced self-propelled self-elevating support vessels (SESVs) serving the offshore oil, gas and renewable energy sectors, provides the following update.

Covenant Schedule Amendment

The Company is pleased to announce that it has agreed with its banking syndicate an amendment to its financial covenant schedule for year ended 31 December 2018 and, accordingly, expects to be in full compliance with all of its covenants when they are tested against its audited 2018 financial results.

Operational Update

GMS previously announced the award of three long-term contracts in the MENA region, each with a charter period of five years (including options). The first of the vessels, a Mid-Size Class SESV, has now commenced operations and the Company is finalising the start dates for the remaining two vessels.

In the MENA region a client has exercised an option to extend the charter of a Mid-Size Class vessel by six months. In addition, a Small Class vessel has started a four-month charter, and a Large Class vessel has been awarded a five-month charter that is scheduled to commence very shortly; both charters include options.

The Company's backlog (including options) will increase to more than US$ 260 million (31 August 2018: US$ 121 million) once the above charters have commenced.

As previously announced, the Company does not expect a recovery in its trading performance in 2019 despite continuing improving levels of utilisation.

Shareholder Announcements

We note that Seafox International Ltd ("Seafox") acquired a 13.73% shareholding in the Company on 14 January 2019. We remain committed to maintaining dialogue with all shareholders, including Seafox, and look forward to ongoing engagement with them.

Duncan Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of GMS, said:

"The improving pipeline of opportunities for our fleet provides confidence that the market is starting to recover, albeit that it is more difficult to predict when this improved demand will be reflected in increased charter rates. We welcome our banks' cooperation in managing our 2018 covenant obligations and continue to progress ways of addressing the Group's long term capital structure. In the meantime, GMS continues to trade effectively and, with our modern, well-invested fleet and a strong track record for providing safe, high quality and cost-effective offshore support solutions proving highly beneficial in tendering processes, we are well-positioned to capitalise on further contract opportunities."

- Ends -

This announcement contains inside information and is provided in accordance with the requirements of Article 17 of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

John Brown

Company Secretary (responsible for arranging the release of this announcement)

Gulf Marine Services PLC

23 January 2019

Enquiries

For further information please contact: 

Notes to Editors:

Gulf Marine Services PLC, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange, was founded in Abu Dhabi in 1977 and has become the world's leading provider of advanced self-propelled self-elevating support vessels (SESVs). The fleet serves the oil, gas and renewable energy industries from its offices in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. The Group's assets are capable of serving clients' requirements across the globe, including those in the Middle East, South East Asia, West Africa and Europe.

The GMS core fleet of 13 SESVs is amongst the youngest in the industry, with an average age of eight years. The vessels support GMS' clients in a broad range of offshore oil and gas platform refurbishment and maintenance activities, well intervention work and offshore wind turbine maintenance work (which are opex-led activities), as well as offshore oil and gas platform installation and decommissioning and offshore wind turbine installation (which are capex-led activities).

The SESVs are categorised by size - Small, Mid-Size and Large Class - with these capable of operating in water depths of 45m to 80m depending on leg length. The vessels are four-legged and are self-propelled, which means they do not require tugs or similar support vessels for moves between locations in the field; this makes them significantly more cost-effective and time-efficient than conventional offshore support vessels without self-propulsion. They have a large deck space, crane capacity and accommodation facilities (for up to 300 people) that can be adapted to the requirements of the Group's clients. In addition, an innovative well workover cantilever system commissioned on a Large Class SESV in 2017 allows GMS to increase the well intervention activities carried out from the vessel and to supplant higher cost non-propelled drilling rigs. 

Gulf Marine Services PLC's Legal Entity Identifier is 213800IGS2QE89SAJF77

www.gmsuae.com

Disclaimer

The content of the Gulf Marine Services PLC website should not be considered to form a part of or be incorporated into this announcement.

Cautionary Statement

This announcement includes statements that are forward-looking in nature. All statements other than statements of historical fact are capable of interpretation as forward-looking statements. These statements may generally, but not always, be identified by the use of words such as 'will', 'should', 'could', 'estimate', 'goals', 'outlook', 'probably', 'project', 'risks', 'schedule', 'seek', 'target', 'expects', 'is expected to', 'aims', 'may', 'objective', 'is likely to', 'intends', 'believes', 'anticipates', 'plans', 'we see' or similar expressions. By their nature these forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, as they relate to events and depend on circumstances that might occur in the future.

Accordingly, the actual results, operations, performance or achievements of the Company and its subsidiaries may be materially different from any future results, operations, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, due to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Neither Gulf Marine Services PLC nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. No part of this announcement constitutes, or shall be taken to constitute, an invitation or inducement to invest the Company or any other entity, and must not be relied upon in any way in connection with any investment decision. All written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or to persons acting on the Company's behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements referred to above.