Chairman to step down

RNS Number : 5639P

Gulf Marine Services PLC

11 February 2019

 

Gulf Marine Services PLC

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

Chairman to step down

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.

Chairman

Following the recent announcements from the Company and Seafox International Limited ("Seafox"), its competitor and 13.7 per cent shareholder in GMS, the Company has continued to engage extensively with its other shareholders both in the UAE and internationally. As result of this consultation process, the Chairman has notified the Board of his intention to stand down once a suitable replacement has been found. Spencer Stuart has been appointed to start conducting a search process for a new Chair. The Senior Independent Director will lead the process on behalf of GMS. 

The search will seek a Chairperson who has UK public market and sector experience, and who will have a particular focus on securing a stable capital base for the business that will enable all shareholders to benefit from future market recovery.

Other Board changes

The Board has been conducting a search for the successor to the CFO role and the process is now reaching a conclusion. The Board expects to announce the successor, who will join the Board, shortly. The proposed candidate has extensive experience in debt financing, UK public markets and the sector which will be very helpful in the ongoing process of achieving a more sustainable capital structure going forward for the business.

The Company's banking facilities are primarily sourced from a syndicate of banks based in Abu Dhabi.  The Board believes that it would be in the best interests of the Company to consider the addition of UAE non-executive director representation to the Board to support the Company's engagement with the local banking syndicate. The Company will actively engage with its shareholders, including in particular all its principal shareholders in the UAE/MENA region, to identify appropriate candidates for consideration.

Company operational strategy

In addition to the work that is currently underway to strengthen the Company's capital base, the Board continues to prioritise the ongoing evaluation of the Company's business to identify new areas to reduce costs and improve efficiency while maintaining its competitive edge. This represents a third round of operational cost cutting in the last four years.

The Board will give further details as soon as practicable.

- 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

11 February 2019

Enquiries

For further information please contact: 

Gulf Marine Services PLC Duncan Anderson John Brown Tel: [phone] Anne Toomey Tel: [phone]

Brunswick   Patrick Handley - UK Will Medvei - UK Tel: [phone] Jade Mamarbachi - UAE Tel: [phone]

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.  

 

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