Harvey Gulf’s Shane Guidry was less bombastic on M&A at Clarksons Platou’s Oil Services Seminar in Houston Monday, but says the company is still looking.
The New Orleans-based company's chief executive said a domestic merger makes sense, while an international one has to be "strategic".
“I believe in M&A [mergers and acquisitions] in the US, in the Gulf of Mexico, because of the Jones Act is a really smart thing to do," he said during a OSV owners panel. "It will certainly help you mange better costs. ... It will give you better opportunities for returns for shareholders, investors.
“When you look outside the Jones Act, it has to be real strategic."
In December, Guidry told TradeWinds he was looking for two consolidation partners, one domestically and one internationally.
He said the listed companies like Tidewater and GulfMark — which completed a merger the month prior after GulfMark rebuffed Harvey Gulf — were too scared, as shareholders would want him to run the company given Harvey Gulf's track record.
The offshore sector has been mired in a multi-year downturn, thanks in part to competition from US shale oil and an abundance of ships. Other panellists, including Tidewater chief executive John Rynd and Hornbeck Offshore head Todd Hornbeck, agreed consolidation was necessary for the industry.
Guidry said a merger abroad would not be a big one, but there were assets that he likes.
"There are two areas that we like, that we would like to do something in,” he said.
“We’ll have to see exactly where that leads us,” he added. “There are some fleets out there that we think make sense at the cost you can get them for to do it today and get ready for tomorrow.”
