Marine tech firm chief exec issues personal apology to shareholders over annual losses
The chief executive of Bath firm SRT Marine has personally apologised to shareholders after the company announced it will make a loss this year.
The firm, which provides technology and software for the marine sector, is blaming delays in delivering contracts for the expected loss.
It said it was disappointed that it is likely new project revenue milestones in the systems business which were expected to be completed in the current financial period will move into the early part of the next financial year.
This is due to longer than expected customer contract completion administrative processes, resulting in significantly lower than expected revenues for the current year.
Revenues will be around £14m lower than expected mostly derived from the transceivers division which will result in a loss for the period.
Chief executive Simon Tucker said: “I fully understand and empathise with the concerns of our shareholders at this time, and personally apologise that our financial performance this year is not expected to be as we had predicted.
“These are short term delays, with short term consequences. The fundamentals and prospects of our business are strong, and we are fortunate to be in a supportive working capital position. Speaking on behalf of the company and the board we are confident that SRT will quickly pass through this brief period of delays.”
The two projects to which these specific deliveries relate is one with an existing Middle Eastern Coast Guard Customer and one with a new SE Asia National Coast Guard Customer.
The first project is worth a gross value of £40m, and SRT has successfully delivered and completed Phase 1 which was worth £16m. Phase 2 is worth £12.5m and Phase 3 worth £11.5m.
In May 2023 SRT signed a binding project contract worth £140m to deliver an SRT C5iSR system with the SE Asia National Coast Guard.
Since then, much preparation has taken place, including project planning, surveys, and procurement.
The completion timescale would mean that the first milestones, worth approximately £45m, and their significant associated revenues and cash collection via the project loan mechanism would fall into the first few months of the new financial year.
As previously announced, a complaint filed against the company and CFO Richard Hurd in the Philippines was formally dismissed and therefore our business continues as normal.
The company said is has also made some significant strides with a number of projects, but particularly, two in SE Asia worth approximately $50m in total, two in the Middle East worth $9m and $200m, one in Africa worth approximately $200m and one in SE Asia worth an indicative $100m.
In January SRT successfully completed an equity cash raise of £10.5m. This placed the company on a strong cash footing intended to enable it to withstand the variances that come with our strategy of becoming a large global maritime systems business.
