Mermaid Maritime on Thursday (May 9) said its joint venture (JV) with a local offshore services operator in the Middle East obtained a one-year contract extension from a “reputable oil major”.
The subsea and offshore drilling services company said in a bourse filing that its portion of the total contract value for the extension is around US$125 million.
As part of the contract extension, the JV will provide offshore inspection, repair and maintenance services to a national upstream oil and gas company. This will continue from its current contract, which started in 2012.
Mermaid : DU4 0% will continue to provide its suite of diving services, while the JV partner – a “ reputable offshore and marine services company” – will provide other offshore vessel-related services and logistics.
Separately, the company announced that criminal charges unrelated to the company were filed against its director, Jean Paul Thevenin, in the Thai courts. The charges are more than 15 years old, Mermaid said.
Thevenin was accused of being a supporter in a criminal offence.
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The complaint asserted that in 2008, Thevenin, while acting as a director of an unrelated company, “executed power of attorney(ies) authorising a staff member to file certain application(s) with the Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Land Office” to survey certain plots of land owned by the unrelated company.
Thevenin said the criminal complaints alleged that the relevant government officials improperly discharged their duties in violation of Thailand’s criminal code. He has denied any wrongdoing and maintained that the facts in the criminal complaint do not support any of the claims made against him.
Thoresen Thai Agencies, Mermaid’s controlling shareholder, has not disqualified Thevenin from acting as its director. He will continue to be a director pending proceedings.
Mermaid’s nomination committee, save Thevenin, said it has no reason currently to believe that Thevenin’s ability to discharge his director duties would be affected. Thus, he will continue to serve as a Mermaid director but abstain from all board discussions regarding himself.
Shares of Mermaid were trading 2.1 per cent or S$0.003 higher at S$0.146 as at 9.40 am on Thursday.
