Abu Dhabi: Gulf Marine Services (GMS), listed on London Stock Exchange, reported a loss of $4.4 million (Dh16.1 million) for the first six months of 2018 mainly due to deferred contract start dates. The company, however, said it is optimistic of attaining profits in the second-half.
Revenues in the first half reached $56.1 million compared to $58.5 million in 2017. “We have had a very busy six months with three new contracts secured and an unprecedented six vessel mobilisations in the period,” Duncan Anderson, CEO for GMS, said in a statement. “Encouragingly, both Ebitda and the Ebitda margin showed sequential improvement against the second-half of last year and whilst it is disappointing that the Group has reported a loss in the half year, the principal cause of this was some of our clients requesting later contract start dates.”
“These have now all successfully commenced and we expect a return to profitability in the second-half of 2018. While the delays have been somewhat frustrating, our financial performance in 2019 will be positively impacted by these recently commenced contracts,” he added.
The Abu Dhabi-based company that supports the offshore, oil, gas and renewable energy sectors with advanced self-propelled self-elevating support vessels (SESVs) secured three contracts in the first half of 2018 with a combined charter period of four years.
