Hallin Marine ROV Fleet US $15 Million Expansion

Hallin Marine, the AIM quoted provider of subsea solutions to the oil and gas industry, announces it is continuing to grow its fleet of remote operated vehicles (ROVs) with a commitment to invest US $15.3 million in a total of seven new work class machines, manufacturing four of the vehicles itself and purchasing externally the remainder.

The expansion follows the success of the Company’s existing fleet of eight work class and seven inspection class ROVs – every vehicle the company has manufactured or purchased has immediately been deployed on profitable projects.

The Company’s first in-house designed and manufactured vehicle, the C-ROV1 (pronounced Sea Rov 1), has now successfully completed more than 100 operational dives while working off of Vietnam and C-ROV2 has been successfully deployed on a Hallin project immediately following the completion of its post-build testing in Singapore.

Hallin’s manufacturing division will now complete the build of C-ROVs 3 & 4 for the Company’s operational divisions. The board has agreed to the subsequent build of C-ROVs 5 & 6, also for Hallin’s own operation. Additionally the East Division has placed an order for a Saab Seaeye Panther XT ROV.

The West Division is currently placing an order that confirms its letter of intent for two Quasar 125 HSP 3,000 metre ROVs from the Tyne & Wear based manufacturer SMD Hydrovision.

The funding for the ROVs will be met by a combination of Hallin’s internal resources and bank borrowing that has already been fully secured.

John Giddens, Hallin’s CEO, said:

“This is a major commitment by Hallin to ensure we have the necessary assets in place in a timely manner to meet the existing and planned requirements of the company. We currently have the furthest ever visibility of our forward order book and will require this level of ROVs to ensure we can meet client demand.”