REG - Gulf Marine Services - 1st Quarter Results

Gulf Marine ServicesAnnouncement

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RNS Number : 5836D  Gulf Marine Services PLC  08 May 2026

 

 

8(th) May 2026

Gulf Marine Services PLC

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

Highlights of unaudited results for Q1 2026, Operations Update and Guidance

GMS, a leading provider of advanced self-propelled, self-elevating support
vessels serving the offshore oil, gas and renewables industries, is pleased to
announce highlights of its unaudited operational results for the three months
period ended 31 March 2026 (Q1 2026).

 

Overview

                                               Q1 2026  Q1 2025  %Change
 Revenue (US$'m)                               38.0     42.3     -10%
 EBITDA (US$'m)                                19.5     25.6     -24%
 EBITDA Margin                                 51.3%    60.5%    -15%
 Net bank debt (US$'m)                         193.1    187.4    +3%
 Net leverage ratio                            1.81:1   1.79:1   +1%
 Utilisation of vessels                        74%      89%      -15%
 Average day rates (US$'k)                     37.0     34.2     +8%
 Backlog as of last day of the period (US$'m)  660      570      +16%

 

Highlights:

 ·         The results reflect the impact of the war in the Gulf, as at 31 March 2026. As
           announced in early March, we were instructed to evacuate the Company's four
           vessels in one of the GCC countries as a precautionary measure. These
           developments halted the Group's operations in that country and reduced our
           average utilisation to 74% in Q1 (Q1 2025: 89%). Utilisation was also affected
           by the preparation of a vessel ahead of its contract commencing in Europe. As
           a result, both revenue and adjusted EBITDA were lower compared to Q1 2025.
           While we remain in discussions with the client on how to address the
           situation, no revenue from those evacuated vessels was recognized in March.

 ·         GMS acquired a brand-new mid-class vessel in January, bringing the total fleet
           being operated by the Company to 15 vessels. The acquisition is in-line with
           the Company's ambition to double 2024 EBITDA by 2030. The acquisition has been
           partially financed through a US$ 37.4 million bridge loan currently in the
           process of being merged into the existing bank facilities.

 ·         Net leverage ratio at 31 March was 1.81x (Q1 2025: 1.79x), below the 2.0x
           long-term target. The increase reflected the financing for the vessel
           acquisition.

 ·         The Board has deferred the decision to declare a distribution at this time
           pending further assessment of the geopolitical situation, while reaffirming
           the capital allocation policy.

 

Outlook:

 ·             As of early April, GMS's crew started to get back on board all the evacuated
               vessels. The client joined on 2 vessels a few days later. This is a welcomed
               positive development.

 ·             A vessel has been redeployed to Europe and started operations in April 2026.
               This enhances our presence in the renewables sector, while further
               diversifying our geographical footprint, which was primarily concentrated in
               the Middle East during 2025.

 ·             We recently announced that our newly acquired vessel is heading to Latin
               America as it secured a contract there. We also announced that we entered into
               an agreement to manage and operate a third party vessel in Africa.

 ·             Our adjusted EBITDA guidance between US$ 105 million to US$ 115 million for
               2026 is maintained.

 ·             Our backlog, which provides future earnings visibility, further increased to
               US$ 666 million as of May 4(th), 2026. We also anticipate continued
               improvement on average day rates as the legacy contracts are being renewed at
               higher day rates.

 

Alex Aclimandos, Chief Financial Officer at GMS said:

 

"We are encouraged that the actions taken over the past few years have
strengthened our resilience and agility, enabling us to absorb recent shocks
and positioning us well to capture the anticipated post-war growth in demand,
in the GCC region. While the war in the Gulf has disrupted and delayed some of
our plans, we had anticipated that Q1 would be a transitional quarter, with
one of our larger vessels relocating to Europe, another transitioning between
contracts, a third undergoing major refurbishment, and the addition of a newly
acquired mid-class vessel."

 

 Enquiries:

Gulf Marine Services PLC

 Mansour Al Alami           Tel: +44 (0)20 7603 1515

 Executive Chairman

 Alex Aclimandos

 Chief Financial Officer

 Celicourt Communications   Tel: +44 (0) 20 7770 6424

 Mark Antelme

 Philip Dennis

 Kristine Qevani

 

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 offshore 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 15 SESVs is amongst the youngest in the industry. The vessels
support GMS's clients in a broad range of offshore platform refurbishment and
maintenance activities, well intervention work, and offshore wind turbine
maintenance work (which are opex-led activities), as well as offshore 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.

 

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