Extension to conclude terms for debt restructure

RNS Number : 3250K

Gulf Marine Services PLC

31 December 2020

 

31 December 2020

Gulf Marine Services PLC

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

Extension agreed for conclusion of improved terms for debt structure

Gulf Marine Services PLC ("GMS" or the "Company"), a leading provider of advanced self-propelled, self-elevating support vessels serving the offshore oil, gas and renewables industries, has been in discussions with its banks in good faith, since the changes to the Board on 10 November. These discussions are in regard to certain improvements to the terms of the debt structure, that was concluded in June this year, as part of the restructuring of its debt facilities.  The Company is pleased to report that discussions have been positive, yet not conclusive and the Company anticipates that there is a reasonable chance to reach an agreement in the course of the coming weeks.

Against this background, the banks have agreed to extend, until 31 January 2021, certain obligations on the Company, which it was otherwise required to have met by 31 December 2020. The extended deadlines include the requirement to issue warrants to the banks on 4 January 2021. This means that the Company will avoid an event of default on December 31 as a result of the general meeting voting against certain resolutions presented by the previous board. The new deadline becomes January 31 2021. 

This extension provides the time for the parties to conclude and formally document proposed changes to the following (among other matters): the timing and targeted quantum of new equity to be raised, the pricing of the debt, and the timing and conditions to be met, to avoid any payment of PIK interest and issuance of any warrants.

Meanwhile the Company continues to make good progress under the new Board and management, including the recently announced improvement in winning new work for the Group, leading to an increase in secured fleet utilisation for 2021 to 75%.

The Company will provide the market with a business update, guidance and further details on the bank deal in due course.

-ENDS-

Enquiries:

Gulf Marine Services PLC Mansour Al Alami Executive Chairman	Tel: [phone]
Celicourt Communications Mark Antelme Philip Dennis	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 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 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, 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.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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