Gulf Marine Services losses sink by $124.3m due to Covid and boat repairs
Offshore industries boat provider Gulf Marine Services reported losses of $124.3m this morning, despite its revenue sinking by just six per cent last year.
Despite boat utilisation surging 81 per cent, up 12 per cent from 2019 figures, its sales fell by $3.7m from 2019 to $70.9m, the group said in its full year unaudited results for the year ending 31 December.
Shares were down 2.29 per cent this morning, with prices sitting at 7.24p per share.
The company was hit by a collision of unforeseen costs with Covid-19 and relocating two vessels from Europe to the Middle East, which totalled $6.8m and $2.3m respectively.
Gulf Marine Services (GMS), which offers offshore oil, gas and renewables industries vessels, also spent $87.7m in total on seven boat impairments last year.
The patched-up boats took the year’s losses to $124.3m. GMS enjoyed a total write-off of $16.2m relating to the renegotiation of bank facilities in June last year.
The boat impairments did not hinder operations too much, however, as the group reported operational downtime as less than two per cent.
GMS also welcomed a board shuffle, with Mansour Al Alami joining as executive chairman in November, succeeding Tim Summers.
Also joining in November was Rashid Al Jarwan as an independent non-executive director and Hassan Heikal as non-executive director. Heikal was promoted to deputy chairman in February this year.