Gulf Marine Services Signs Deal with Zakher Marine International

Gulf Marine Services PLC (GMS) has announced that it has entered into a Framework Agreement with Zakher Marine International (ZMI), a leading privately-owned operator of self-propelled self-elevated support vessels (SESV) in the Middle East.

The two companies have agreed to identify mutually beneficial cost-saving opportunities and improve operational availability for the benefit of customers using the combined scale of both self-propelled SESV fleets.

The Agreement lays out four principle areas of potential co-operation: Procurement; Logistics; Maintenance, Classification and Repair; and Employment and Training of Offshore Crew.

GMS and ZMI have agreed to establish joint teams and protocols to identify ways to pool resources, combine functions, and leverage combined purchasing power in order to reduce costs.

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Both companies operate a similar number of modern exclusively self-propelled SESV vessels, sharing many key components, allowing for multiple opportunities to leverage the combined scale in key areas to reduce third-party spend, while maintaining operational and service excellence.

Most of the cost benefits are expected to flow through in 2021 and beyond.

GMS and ZMI will continue to operate and compete as independent commercial entities in accordance with applicable laws, regulations and their respective contractual obligations.

Tim Summers, Executive Chairman, said: “GMS has made substantial progress on cost management over the last twelve months. Accretive gains will continue, but this strategic move offers genuinely substantive progress.

"Under this Agreement we will work with ZMI to explore leveraging the combined scale of our respective supply chains, in order to lower costs and maintain higher operational availability and uptime for our customers.”

Zakher Marine International (ZMI) are a logical choice of partner for GMS as they have the only exclusively self-propelled SESV fleet that is comparable to GMS in age, size and specification.

ZMI operates most of the Middle Eastern key markets, and like GMS, is headquartered in Abu Dhabi.

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