Wehnam Group Announces Successful Restructuring of Global Marine; Whitman joins Wenham as Strategic Advisor.
The Wenham Group, an affiliate of Bridgehouse Capital, is pleased to announce that Global Marine Systems Ltd. has successfully completed its restructuring.
Boston, MA, November 15, 2004 -- The Wenham Group, an affiliate of Bridgehouse Capital, is pleased to announce that Global Marine Systems Ltd. has successfully completed its restructuring. Global Marine is the world's leading provider of submarine cable installation and maintenance services to the telecommunications industry.
The Wenham/Bridgehouse team acquired Global Marine three months ago from Global Crossing. Due to the dramatic drop in installation projects since 2002 as a consequence of the telecom crash, Global Marine (like others in its industry) faced significant cash burn issues and excess fleet capacity.
The Wenham/Bridgehouse team led Global Marine through a unique “company voluntary arrangement” and administrative proceeding under UK insolvency laws that replicated the benefits of a US-style Chapter 11 reorganization. Global Marine reached final agreements with The Royal Bank of Scotland, Maersk, Global Marine’s unions and other key creditors, while fully preserving the Company’s pension plans, and the Company is now out of administration. In addition, the Wenham/Bridgehouse team worked with Global Marine’s management to create a new fleet strategy and a new corporate strategy. As a result, Global Marine is now projecting positive cash flows for 2005 and beyond based on conservative revenue projections while retaining its leading position in submarine cable installation and maintenance.
Global Marine is now well-positioned to weather the challenges of the telecom industry and to excel as the only one of the “big 3” competitors to be an equipment-agnostic, independent company. The Company will aggressively explore new installation and maintenance opportunities in submarine fiber optic projects around the world while also continuing to explore opportunities in oil and gas, defense, renewable energy and other areas where it can leverage its unique skill sets.
As a related announcement, Larry Schwartz of The Wenham Group has been appointed to the Board of Directors of International Cableships Pte Ltd. (ICPL), a leading provider of submarine cable installation and maintenance services to Southeast Asian telecommunications companies. ICPL is owned by Singapore Telecommunications together with certain other incumbent Asian carriers.
We are also pleased to announce that Joel Whitman has joined The Wenham Group. Joel is a senior marketing and corporate strategy executive with expertise across a wide range of industries. During the past two decades he has led a variety of projects, both as a member of senior management teams as well as an outside advisor. Joel has significant industry expertise in numerous industries, including technology (networking hardware and software), telecom, health care, fashion, retail, advertising and public relations. His expertise in corporate strategy, direct and indirect sales strategies, and marketing enables The Wenham Group to work closely with its portfolio companies to find and maximize top-line growth opportunities. He also brings significant expertise in post-acquisition integration planning that helps to ensure that key operational objectives are not disrupted by transaction-related efforts. Joel previously served as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Business Development at NaviSite, Inc. Prior to NaviSite, he was Vice President of Product Marketing for Genuity Inc. He also served as Marketing Director for Cabletron. His advisory work has included numerous projects for industry leaders, such as Sun Microsystems, K Sciences and GTE, as well as numerous emerging market companies and start-ups.
The Wenham Group is also pleased to announce the opening of its new offices at Harbor’s Point, 40 Beach Street, Suite 201, Manchester, MA 01944. .