DCD Marine enters voluntary business rescue

/ MEDIA STATEMENT / This content is not written by Creamer Media, but is a supplied media statement.

The board of Cape Town based DCD Marine – a member of the DCD Group – has put the business into voluntary business rescue after 18 months of very difficult trading conditions.

According to DCD Group Chief Executive Officer Digby Glover, DCD Marine was focused predominantly on the oil and gas market, which has contracted massively due to low global oil prices. The business rescue process allows the business some room to negotiate with stakeholders, so it can take appropriate actions that put the business in a more positive position. 

“The intention of this process is to give the business the best possible chance of trading through these difficult conditions,” said Glover. “The intention is to keep the business alive and to save jobs; if there was no chance of DCD Marine making it through this difficult time, the business rescue route could not have been taken.”

He said market conditions have forced DCD Marine to revert its focus to the ship repair and industrial markets, which were more consistent but smaller in scale – leading to contraction within the business.

Business rescue practitioners Neill Hobbs and Justin Gordon from Hobbs Sinclair had been appointed to administer the process, which was effective Thursday 10 November.

DCD Marine’s roots in the ship repair market go back over a century; its main facility in the Port of Cape Town is one of Africa’s most recognised and established service providers in this industry.

“Whilst it is of course a serious concern for the DCD Group that one of our companies has to undergo this process, the Group looks forward to DCD Marine coming out stronger than before,” he said. “We have every reason to believe that this will be the case.”