24 January 2022

Gulf Marine Services PLC

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

Trading Update

GMS, a leading provider of advanced self-propelled, self-elevating support vessels serving the offshore oil, gas and renewables industries, is pleased to provide the following trading update.

Vessel utilisation for 2021 was in-line with expectations at 85%. As a result, EBITDA is expected to be between US$63-US$65m and within the previous guidance range given.

Recent contract awards have positioned the company well for 2022. Utilisation across the Company's larger and mid-size, high earning E&S class vessels, is currently 94% contracted, with overall secured vessel utilisation standing at 78%.

Average secured dayrates for 2022 are currently 10% ahead of 2021 actual levels. The Company expects dayrates to continue to improve further, based on a strong pipeline of new opportunities and as the market continues to tighten.  

A two-year option period on a K Class contract has been exercised and the current Backlog (Firm + Options) stands at US $216 million.

EBITDA guidance for 2022 is expected to be in the range of $70-$80m million, which remains in-line with market expectations, and is supported by the improved trading conditions.  

The Company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Arden Partners PLC as its joint corporate broker to act alongside Panmure Gordon.

Mansour Al Alami GMS Executive Chairman said:
 

"Our markets continue to improve with dayrates on recent contract awards showing healthy increases from legacy contracts and secured utilisation for 2022 already close to where we finished 2021, underpinning the expected improvement in the performance of the business."

-ENDS-

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 a world 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 Qatar. The Group's assets are capable of serving clients' requirements across the globe, including those in the Middle East, South East Asia, West Africa, North America, the Gulf of Mexico and Europe.
 

The GMS fleet of 13 SESVs is amongst the youngest in the industry, with an average age of eight years. The vessels support GMS's 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 - K-Class (Small), S-Class (Mid) and E-Class (Large) - 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.
 

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

www.gmsplc.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.