Gulf of Mexico-focused vessel operator Harvey Gulf International Marine has been granted approval for its final Plan of Reorganization by the United States Bankruptcy Court.
The approval comes just 77 days following Harvey Gulf’s prepackaged filing, considerably faster than all previous Chapter 11 proceedings for vessel operators over the last five years, the company noted.
Following the hearing, Harvey Gulf CEO, Shane Guidry, said: “My competitors have been telling our customers, lenders and vendors that Harvey Gulf’s not going to survive the Chapter 11 process. Not only does our emergence show they were wrong, but the speed with which we have been able to get final court approval also shows the disingenuous nature of their efforts — or smear tactics.”
“As I have been telling my customers and others in the industry, this has always been a debt for equity swap, with no changes in operations, personnel, safety, etc. This will be best shown by Harvey Gulf’s achievement of 5 years without a recordable incident company-wide this coming August — something no one in our industry has done for as long as I can remember. It will also be shown by Harvey Gulf continuing to generate more EBITDA post emergence than all of our public competitors combined, just as we have done since 2016, while delivering to our shareholders an average EBITDA margin of 58% during the same time period,” Guidry added.
The company also revealed in connection with the Chapter 11 proceedings that it recently entered into three long-term vessel charters with Hess for two of its 310′ LNG PSVs and one of its 300′ PSV that took the place of vessels previously operated by Aries Marine and recently acquired by Hornbeck Offshore.