The shipping company Gulf Navigation Holding has signed up with a Turkish maritime firm to expand its services.
The Dubai-listed company entered into a global deal with Polimar Turkish to provide services related to the oil and gas sector, offshore vessels, container liner vessels, bulk carriers, cruise ships and yachts. It can now serve the vessels of its customers in major trading ports across the world as well as at home.
The Gulf Navigation fleet is expected to grow from four service boats to 10 crews, tugs and offshore support vessels with a value of US$3 million per vessel as part of the deal. The revenue from the partnership is expected to be about $27m a year, according to Gulf Navigation.
The partnership also expects to invest in marine tourism, yacht marina and hotels in the UAE and Turkey, according to Aydin Alaftan, the president of Polimar Denizcilik ve Ticaret and Akashi Ship Management Athens.
Gulf Navigation shares closed at Dh1.58 on Thursday, up from 61 fils a year ago.
Gulf Navigation Maritime, a subsidiary of Gulf Navigation Holding Group, and Polimar Turkish signed the deal. The joint venture company will be a subsidiary of Gulf Navigation Holding Group and based in Dubai from this month.
Established in 1996, Polimar Turkish, which provides shipping services with offices in Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, has a presence in ports in Istanbul, Tuzla, Yalova and Canakkale in Turkey, Piraeus in Greece, Dubai, Bourgas in Bulgaria, Suez in Egypt, Gibraltar and Novorossiysk in Russia.
The deal is among a series of partnerships that Gulf Navigation has forged recently.
Last month it signed a partnership with the Geneva-based SeaQuest Group, which provides ship management services, to expand marine project management and consultancy services of Gulf Navigation in the Middle East and Africa through a new company based in Dubai from this month. The new company will be a subsidiary of Gulf Navigation Holding.
Also in December, Gulf Navigation entered into an alliance with Dubai-based energy trading company Mena Energy for cooperation in ship acquisition, chartering and management. As part of the deal Gulf Navigation will acquire or order up to 12 vessels.
The Dubai shipping company said last month that it would invest $950m by 2020 to double its petrochemicals fleet and expand operations in the Northern Emirates.
At the end of the third quarter its total liabilities were Dh526.52m, down from Dh656.23m at the end of the previous quarter. Khamis Buamim, the former Drydocks World chairman, took over as the company’s managing director in the second quarter.
Gulf Navigation reported third-quarter operating profits of Dh7.26m, up from Dh6.02m a year ago.
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