THREAD NOW CLOSED 3 May 2007

LATEST NEWS...(Check RNS service for details)

10/4/2007 - GME removes its minority interest in Patriot so shareholders enjoy 100% of all growth at Patriot
20/3/2007 - GME announces it will no longer support as NIM as non-core but instead focus on Patriot's US$123 order book
4/1/2007 - Cantor Fitgerald report 6.90% Holding
Decemebr - $31m orders reported
w/b 27/11 - Cantor buy >3%, Further order of $11m for rig packages
w/e 24/11 - Orders of $20m announced, but not profitable as expected
w/e 13/10 - Further $8m orders
w/e 27/09 - Further additions by Schroders to 12%
w/e 22/9 - Further orders of c $18m plus Gartmore stake increases to 20%.

Global Marine Energy plc is an Oil services company primarily bringing together and delivering rig component/equipment packages to international markets. GME is the holding company for two subsidiaries, Patriot Mechanical Handling and NIM engineering. Patriot provides the bulk of GME's sales.

GME is a niche player, there being only 1 or 2 alternatives for packaged equipment.
Patriot is a member of Source One drilling - a marketing alliance created by Le Tourneau Ellis Williams (LEWCO). www.source1drilling.com

Thread re-opened post results. Feel free to post away. News summary under picture.

Disclaimer: As always, Do Your Own research as no comments or foward looking statements posted here can be guaranteed.

This is an AIM listed company so high risk - only for investments you & your family can afford and are prepared to loose.



***Latest*** (also see estimated Share position analysis below @ 20 April 2006)
19 Sept - $9m from Brazil & America
14 Aug - GME announces $9m of orders including $1.2m NIM orders for Baker marine
These funded in part from recent raised capital.
11 Aug - GME delivers 11.2m stg (2005 4.76m). NIM issues notified in July addressed.
June - Cobra Ltd take large stake, a few previous buyers add
June - Placings at 15p
25 May - Paul Findlay promoted to Group CEO. S Wild (NIM subsid) off board.
10 May - PMHH signs up to http://www.source1drilling.com alliance
8 May - PMHH huge $8.6M china order+announces multiple chinese deals
5 May - PMH signs exclusive deal with winch company EMCE/Stokvis
4 May - Shroders increase to 11.16%
19 Apr - Shroders buy 10.10% 4,525,000
4 Apr - Gartmore adds stock now 17%, CAML buys 3.52%

Owl
Well here's the thing, I want to treat my friends to the wild weekend. Can't do that if GME don't reach 1 or thereabouts by August. Refuse to sell at huge loss!

I'm sitting on a large loss and wondering whether to move on as you say a trading update would help!

The next 6 months should be very telling. Maybe a trading update at year end and then results. As far as we know order books are full and still plenty of work around to keep us busy for years to come.

PMH books are certainly full. Also lots of UK staff now have PMH addresses.
If they needed to, the NIM yards could probably take some work.

Last I heard re NIM (Oct AGM) was they'd built 4 cranes for Baker Marine who now wanted 4 more (2 per rig). They didn't have the funds at that time, but have now so I guess if the order is still there, they must be building away. Anyone's guess on additional work. The orders are not huge so don't need to announce, also issues of confidentiality. IMO Mr Wood is ambitious with the parent so if NIM (which he only bought recently) doesn't perform (i.e. show signs of regular 300-500k orders, he'll sell it off in favour of PMH - thereby raising GME sp.

Let's just hope the whole co. is still 'trading profitably' as per Dec RNS as this is not what the market expects at all.

I keep reminding myself only started this investment in May! AIM's really meant for Medium- long term (i.e. 2-5years) otherwise there's no reason to hold AIM stocks, plus you don't get the 10% CGT advantage until 2 years have passed.
We've been extremely unlucky with the turnover disappointment & placement. The stock is oversold and should be about 45p at the mo IMO. It's 23p because of the appalling PR - i.e. no reason other than speculation why it should be higher.

I'd love to see 2, but have tax issues if we go over 60p soon! ..hence ok if they take another 9 months -1 year (just so long as there's progress) to get to this then hit 1 by May- Sept 2007.

We do need a trading update around the end of the year Mar/Apr to cheer us up (or otherwise). I share moneyplus' predicament - big loss, bored, looking for some progress, BUT I have a number of other stocks firing up very well to keep me happy and as Owl says, 1 in a year's time will be a very nice result whilst my current fiery steeds are either taking a breather or have been put out to grass and replaced by other watch, wait and hope mustangs.

The relative stability over February since the last whiplash at least gives confidence that there is no bad news out there. The reports of orders placed and trading profitably make waiting for full year results worthwhile IMHO before jumping ship.

Also we seem mercifully uncluttered by rampers and bashers, so we can reflect upon Owl's very welcome snippets in tranquility and optimism (tinged with the watchful eye of fear, of course!).

sd

In another place, I've heard there'll be a trading update in April.

When in April, or what it will be is anyone's guess.
As you say SD, a healthy fear :-)

Patriot up 54% today. Not much volume though.

Never mind the volume, feel the quality my dear!

You seem like a good candidate for Chrissie's wild weekend, Stockdog ;-)

Love to be there! Chrissie, please invite me. (Well, if you don't ask, you don't get and I'm too long in the tooth to beat about the bush!)

Does the reduction of Goldman Sachs below the reportable level remove the recent selling pressure and allow us to move forward now, or is that a signal for a greater exodus to come, do you think?

sd

Apparently Goldman Sachs shares have gone to thier clients, so no mass exodus.

Will be sending out my invitations after the trading update in April. Depends on sp where this wild weekend is to take place. Could be Barcalona, Paris, Rome, Madrid or Bognor Regis.........Will let you all know.

Bugger Barcelona - who was it said that?

Goldman's purchase was as a 'nominee' - they bought a bunch of shares and sold them to clients - hence the notification.

There are no fewer shares, and it's postive really as they've managed to sell on all they had - so now have a 'reputational risk' with clients. I'd like to know if anyone big bought them via Goldman (e.g. RBS). I'll also be looking to see if Goldman start buying GME on own account to defend or actively move the price.

This by the way is why the share price hasn't changed. The same thing happens with instis like City Equities. Difference being CE generally sell to likes of you and me who usually quickly sell. Goldman clients are probably v. wealthy individuals mostly who'll stick around a bit.

Chrissie, Owl - interesting thoughts on GS, thanks. I agree that now they've disposed of the shares it is more likely positive than negative on the SP.

sd

This is interesting - I have often wondered about these people before, but only mentioned once in posts before. When I've a bit of time tomorrow, may do a bit of a study and see if (laymans terms only of course) there may synergies here...

http://portal.woodgroup.com/portal/page?_pageid=0,17510&_dad=portal30&_schema=PORTAL30

Look at the paragraph beginning ...Trading Natural Gas and size of acquisitions they're talking about. There are not many O&G companies around in UK like GME, Wood, Abbott etc...um I wonder.

Someone provide the other side please...cmon BritishBear, - right up your street here ...lol. I woodn't put it past Wood.


More importantly, what does 'eponymous' mean?


----

(By the way no relation to Philip Wood!)...

Wood Group Draws Up Shortlist of Acquisitions
by Mark Williamson The Herald Tuesday, March 07, 2006


Wood Group, the oil services giant, has lined up a series of multi-million-dollar acquisitions after a profits growth of 27-per cent last year helped by surging energy prices.

Sir Ian Wood, eponymous chairman and chief executive, said the Aberdeen-based firm was eyeing "two or three" targets across the world and could clinch a deal with one within the next two weeks.

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With oil and gas firms increasing global activity in response to strong demand for energy, the company wants to widen the range of services it offers and the geographic spread of its operations. All the potential acquisitions are in what Wood describes as the classic company range of dollars-10m to dollars-20m (GBP5.7m to GBP11.4m). However, the firm has not ruled out another deal on the scale of the GBP80m acquisition of Mustang, the American deepwater specialist it bought in 2000, and could comfortably fund another such deal.

Wood said the firm was positioned for strong growth in 2006 and faced an "opportunity-rich" environment, as oil and gas firms cashed in on record prices.

With the economies of leading oil-producing nations like Saudi Arabia dependent on oil prices remaining at around the dollars-60- plus a barrel level recorded in recent months, pricing conditions were unlikely to change significantly in a hurry.

This should be good news for the North Sea, where strong activity levels helped the company grow underlying profits from GBP67m to GBP85m in the year ended December 31.

The controversial increase in tax rates from April will have an unquantifiable impact on the province in the longer term. However, Wood expects the market to remain active into next year as producers try to squeeze every drop out of the ground, supporting demand for its expertise in areas such as the maximisation of output from existing fields.

Wood also expects an upturn in the US power market to continue to help the company's under-performing gas turbines operation.

Problems at the unit had prompted him in 2004 to put on hold plans to hand over the top job to his deputy, Allister Langlands. However, 39-per cent growth in profits, to GBP19m, indicated it made progress in the latest year.

Although there remained room for improvement in gas turbine margins, Wood said he expected the board to make an announcement on succession issues "towards the middle of this year". Meanwhile, Langlands was "extremely busy doing some really key things" for Wood, including looking at opportunities to grow through acquisition and geographic expansion.

Wood is keen to increase its presence in areas like the Middle East, where, historically, it has been under-represented.

Iraq involved "too many security issues and problems", reckoned Wood, but there were numerous opportunities in countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Wood said that acquisitions in the UK were unlikely. Nonetheless, results for the year ended December 31 show that the North Sea remains a key area of the Wood business.

Sales in Europe, the bulk of which were in UK waters, rose 22- per cent to GBP506m. This represented 32-per cent of the group total of GBP1578m, the same proportion as in 2004, when group sales totalled GBP1307m.

Wood shares rose 4.5p to 259p.

Just see the headlines now.

'Would Wood Group buy Wood's Group?'

Owl,

Just imagine if they were headed by Edward Woodward!

'Would Edward Woodward's Wood Group buy Wood's Group?'

:-)

Eponymous from the Greek means literally "named about" so Mr Wood is the eponymous head of Wood Group. Robinson Crusoe was the eponymous hero of the book of that name. Just thought you should know.

Same old news:

http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BT/Thursday/Corporate/BT555636.txt/Article/

Well I don't know about you, but with orders like these coming from GME's best client, either GME will get a chunk more work, or they have so much already they can't take anymore!!

If that's the case, but they have the skills, wouldn't be surprised to see 'prefunded' orders coming in this industry soon. The clients can easily afford it.

There must come a 'tipping point' where economies of scale mean more companies will do what Wood Group are already doing, and start merging & buying up facilities. Just imagine, with a 20M-30M offer, another company would probably be better placed than GME's management to drive sales towards the 13M, 18M, 21M the analysts have projected, make economies of scale and even raise sales further to say 40M by better use of their own existing facilities. Pay back wouldd be 1-2 years. Integration costs (for the right company) could be minimal.

The institutions would be in favour too, & I'm sure and it would be a great accolade for GME management.

I wonder if this is now the only way GME can take on new work, and expand at the
rate they'd like? Yes, maybe Keppel was an indication of things to come, but we all know the co. can't take many of those due to length of contracts, and usual need for advance capital.

If anyone can see the merits/argument for GME 'staying single'
then fire away...in this game, surely bigger must be better.

Owl - you forgpt to mention the final stage of the process, when the Oil Production Co sees the top of the cycle coming and then demerges a profit-enhanced Oil Service Co to book a nice gain at the expense of the PI's who have not yet spotted the final stages of the oil production reinvestment boom cycle!

I for one would be delighted with an offer for GME - can't wait around for ever. If progress is as good as the RNS's have suggested over the last year, this one should be a case of hold on rumour and buy after careful consideration of the accounts, creating some nice momentum when the prelims are publised (see DGT as a great example of this over this last week). If this does not prove to be the case, at least a little bit, I may well move on then to something a little faster rewarding.

Oh God, make me patient, but not yet - St Augustine might have said, had the stock market existed in the early part of the first millenium.

sd

You only need to be as patient as the >3% holders, Stockdog ;-)

Presumably Gartmore didn't buy >10% to wait 3 years for some payback, nor will Mr Wood expect to be sitting on a 107,500 loss (actually larger than that as he can't sell at the offer!!) less 5,000 per month he's losing in interest (@6%) ...for long.
He's racked up 122,500 loss in 3 months!!