Gulf Capital Acquires Stake in Maritime Industrial Services Co.

According to Rigzone, Gulf Capital has acquired, as part of a large investment consortium, a 21% stake in Maritime Industrial Services Co. (MIS) was acquired as part of a larger private placement that raised $80 million for MIS on the Norwegian over the counter (OTC) market.

The private placement will enable MIS, which provides a fully integrated onshore and offshore engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and shipyard service, to capitalize on the current boom in offshore oil explorations and allow it to enter in a major way into the rig manufacturing business. The current high demand for oil and gas has resulted in an unprecedented amount of offshore exploration activities and boosted worldwide offshore rig utilization to 86%, one of the highest levels ever. This high utilization rate has put pressure on average rig daily rental rates which have peaked at record levels of up to US $180,000 - $200,000 per day. Middle Eastern jack up drilling rigs are working at close to 100% utilization rates and the GCC market for jack up rigs is the fastest growing in the world. MIS, with its extensive offshore construction and fabrication experience and with yards and operations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, is ideally positioned to meet the large demand for offshore rigs. MIS has already secured an order to build two Friede & Goldman designed Super M2 Jack up rigs for MOSVOLD Jackup Ltd., a Bermudan registered Norwegian Shipping Company, with an option to build two more rigs in the future. The construction is under progress in MIS' 200,000 square meter yard which has a capacity to build up to 10 rigs by 2010. As the conventional new build yards around the world have filled their order books and reached maximum capacity, the focus has now turned to newcomers such as MIS who can build such rigs. MIS, with one of the largest yards in the Middle East, is well placed to join the ranks of the Singaporean and US building yards. Source: Rigzone