Shareholders of Global Spectrum Energy Services Plc (GSES) have given their nod for the company to proceed with plans to raise fresh capital funds by way of bond issuance. The shareholders at the company’s 14th Annual General Meeting held Wednesday, in Lagos expressed their appreciation for the company’s performance over the years.
According to the shareholders, it has become important that the company secures fresh funds to expand its operations by way of acquiring more owned vessels. This they noted will enhance the profit position of the company and enable it to deliver more rewards to the shareholders and value to all stakeholders.
Osahon Idemudia, the chairman of the company, in his address to the shareholders, said global spectrum operates in a niche area of the oil and gas industry and must continue to make investments to tap into the growing opportunities in the sector.
The chairman said it was quite commendable that the company has continued to operate without any loans, but funds its operations with revenue generated from its activities. This he said is an indication of management efficiency which should give comfort to its investors and shareholders.
Read also: How to secure financing for your investment into a DisCo franchise area
The chairman noted that the company operates a mix of owned and leased vessels, but will function more profitably if the fleet of owned vessels were significantly increased. He added that the need for an increase in the number of vessels becomes stronger as the company has now expanded its line of services to include merchant vessel escorts with potential for appreciable contribution to revenue. The merchant shipping escort service is a growing line of business that the company is currently giving new focus as it expands and diversifies its operations.
The main line of business of Global spectrum remains the supply of security vessels, platform supply vessels, anchor handlers etc, to IOCs in the gulf of guinea that includes Sao Tome & Principe, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Senegal and others.
The company as part of its effort to strengthen investor confidence subjected itself to a credit rating exercise on the headline of Issuer Rating by both Agusto & Co. and Data Pro, two major credit rating agencies in the country. The two agencies respectively assigned a “BBB” and “BBB+” to Global Spectrum.
The two agencies in their rating reports said the rating assigned to GSES “is upheld by the Company’s low leverage or zero debt exposure as the business is largely funded with equity, adequate working capital, and experienced and stable management team as well as growing client portfolio of international oil companies”.
The rating agency, in assigning a stable status to the company further pinned the favourable prospects for the company’s growth and profitability to factors that include the expected rebound in the consumption of crude oil as the global economy recover from the covid 19 pandemic, favourable local content policy, and its entry into the merchant shipping security.
Global Spectrum Energy Services Plc is a marine security and logistics company, with added operational competencies in energy and engineering services in the oil and gas sector. Over the last five years, GSES has grown its vessel fleet to 12 comprising both leased and owned vessels fuelled by the growing demand for marine security along Nigerian coast lines. The company was incorporated in on March 14, 2006 and converted to a public limited company in 2013 in continued pursuit towards the achievement of its strategic growth objectives. The company was listed on the main board of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2017 and its shares are actively traded on the floor of the Exchange. It currently has over 600 shareholders in its register of members.
