Gulf Marine Services Regulatory News (GMS)

Gulf Marine Services PLC

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

GMS SECURES US$620 MILLION DEBT FACILITY TO FUND CONTINUED GROWTH

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, today announced it has secured a new US$620 million debt facility.

The syndicated loan facility combines Islamic and conventional financing and will replace the Group's existing funding facilities with no changes to the previous borrowing covenants. The facility has a term of six years and comprises a US$375 million term loan, a US$175 million committed capex facility and US$70 million for general working capital purposes; a further US$300 million uncommitted facility has also been agreed.

Duncan Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of GMS, said: 

"The Group is pleased to announce this substantial new debt facility, which both extends the maturity of our debt profile and has been achieved with a helpful improvement in the borrowing margins compared to our previous financing arrangements. This is testament to the banking community's confidence in our business model and prospects in the current low oil price environment. We have the right capital structure in place to continue our strategy for delivering long-term growth."

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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 leading provider of self-propelled self-elevating support vessels (SESVs) in the world. 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 the Middle East, South East Asia, West Africa and Europe.

GMS has an ongoing new build programme which will increase the fleet size by 66% to 15 vessels during the period 2014 to the end of 2016, in response to continued strong customer demand and an anticipated growing market in the foreseeable future.

The Group's SESV fleet, which currently comprises 13 vessels is technically advanced and amongst the youngest in the industry, with an average age of seven years. 

The SESVs are four-legged vessels that move independently, with no requirement for anchor handling or tug support. They have a large deck space, crane capacity and accommodation facilities that can be adapted to the requirements of the Group's clients.

These 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) and offshore oil and gas platform installation and offshore wind turbine installation (which are capex-led activities).

The fleet is categorised by size into Large Class vessels (operating in water depth of up to 80m, with crane capacity of up to 400 tonnes and accommodation for up to 300 people) and Small Class vessels (operating in water depth of up to 45m, with crane capacity of up to 45 tonnes and accommodation for up to 300 people). A new third class, the Mid-Size Class vessels (operating in water depth up to 55m, with crane capacity of up to 150 tonnes and accommodation for up to 300 people) was added to the fleet in 2015.

Demand for GMS' vessels is predominantly driven by their premium capabilities as well as market growth underpinned by the need to maintain ageing oil and gas infrastructure and increasing use of enhanced oil recovery techniques to offset declining production profiles. This focus on opex brownfield work positions GMS well against a current background of challenging macroeconomic conditions.

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