Great Lakes Dredge CEO: “We’re 100% vaxxed”
Written by Nick Blenkey
GLDD president and CEO Lasse Petterson: “As expected, 2023 was a year of positive transition from a difficult 2022.”
“I’m very proud of meeting our target of 100% vaccination of all team members in the third quarter last year,” Lasse Petterson, CEO of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (NASDAQ: GLDD), told financial analysts in a call in this week, adding that “due to our vaccination efforts we have experienced less severe impacts from the virus infections. Throughout [2021] we avoided team members being hospitalized and no team member tested positive for COVID-19 from September through early December.”
The call-in followed GLDD’s announcement of its financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2021.
Though all the numbers were down for the full year, with adjusted EBITDA coming in at $127.4 million as compared to $151.1 million in 2020, the company ended the year with a strong fourth quarter with all the numbers up compared to the prior year’s final quarter.
- Revenue was $210.0 million for the fourth quarter 2021, a $37.9 million increase over the prior year fourth quarter.
- Gross margin percentage was 25.2% for the fourth quarter 2021 as compared to 19.4% in the prior year fourth quarter.
- Total operating income was $36.5 million, an increase of $19.2 million or 111.0% increase over the prior year fourth quarter.
- Net income for the quarter was $24.7 million, as compared to $10.6 million in the prior year quarter, a $14.1 million or 133.0% increase over the prior year fourth quarter.
- Adjusted EBITDA was $48.2 million for the fourth quarter 2021, as compared to $29.4 million in the prior year quarter, a $18.8 million or 63.9% increase over the prior year fourth quarter.
In his call with analysts, Petterson said that with the organization 100% vaccinated against COVID-19 “we were able to return to normal operations during fourth quarter, even with new strains of the virus emerging late November.”
“In addition to delivering respectable financial results in Q4, we saw a new milestone in our positioning for the new offshore wind generation market by issuing a $197 million contract for the construction of the first Jones Act compliant, rock installation vessel,” he said. “Delivery of the vessel is planned for 2024.”
“During the year,” he continued, “we continued to safely perform essentially critical infrastructure projects in a domestic dredging market as the market for new projects remained relatively strong in 2021. Throughout the year, we’ve performed major port deepening works in the ports of Portsmouth, Boston, Charleston, Jacksonville, Mobile, Sabine, Freeport and Corpus Christi.
“We also saw increased demand for our coastal protection projects re-nourishment of coastal beaches that have been damaged from the major hurricane events during the year and additional wetlands restoration projects to help protect the coastline from additional storm damage. Climate change continues to impact our nation.”
Looking ahead, Petterson said: “We expect that the 2022 bid market will be as strong as 2021. And we see bids for multiple new phases of port deepening projects in Norfolk, Freeport, Mobile, Sabine and additional phases of the widening of the Houston Ship Channel project that will continue for the next several years.”
Categories: Coastal, Dredging, Inland, News, Offshore Wind
