GulfMark Offshore reports third quarter results

GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE: GLF) reported net income of $14.2 million, or $0.54 per diluted share, on revenues of $103.8 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2011.

Bruce Streeter, President and CEO, commented, “The third quarter benefited from increased pricing and utilization in the North Sea, better pricing in the Americas and higher utilization in Asia. It’s encouraging to see quarterly revenue exceeding the $100 million mark. That’s an achievement we have not seen in a couple of years. Looking back to the first quarter of this year, the business has improved substantially as the year has progressed. As the signs of recovery continue in the Gulf of Mexico and as the global economy finds its footing, we anticipate our business will continue to improve over the next few years.

“I think there are a couple of noteworthy items that should help in understanding the third quarter results. The first is that we have largely completed our scheduled drydock program for the year, and we expect to be very close to the $17 million figure we budgeted for 2011. This entailed moving drydocks forward from the fourth quarter and resulted in drydock expense for the third quarter being approximately $2 million higher than anticipated. Second, in Brazil, we experienced a non-cash foreign currency charge of approximately $3 million. In addition, direct operating expenses during the quarter were also higher than we anticipated. Some of the increase in expense is related to the cost of moving and preparing vessels for contract changes, some related to inflationary pressures in our international locations, and some related to a higher operating activity level than we had planned.

“Since reporting the second quarter results, we have announced the commissioning of the construction of six new vessels intended for use in the North Sea, but with the potential for use in other areas. We are extremely excited about these new vessels. Our customers continue to demand technologically advanced offshore support vessels, and these vessels will meet their expectations. Although this set of vessels is designed for the North Sea market, we continue to monitor market developments throughout the world and are poised to make the best global investments for our stockholders while maintaining a strong and secure balance sheet.”

Turning to the outlook for the company, Mr. Streeter said: “The continued sequential quarterly improvement in our business is extremely encouraging and we continue to believe that the recovery seen thus far in 2011 will continue throughout 2012 and beyond, although we may see some typical seasonality in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. Each of our operating regions will continue to meet the demand of a very challenging marketplace, and I want to thank all of our employees for their dedicated work to improve our operations and for working hard to satisfy our customers.”

October 20, 2011