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To: upanddown who wrote (57675)	12/31/1999 12:57:00 PM
From: Big Dog	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

John, The reason you don't see FGH as a 'building yard' for rigs through the years is that Friede Goldman has always been a design firm - not a construction firm. It became a construction company when JL bought Friede Goldman and integrated it with tiny construction yard HAM Marine. It was a very smart move, getting the name brand of F&G associated with a relatively no-name construction yard. If you check the design type of offshore rigs you will see many of the F&G design - but built at various yards. FYI - It is extremely difficult for domestic yards to compete with foriegn yards on price. Korean yards in particular will just ask "what does the price need to be"? And then they will do it for that price. This is the reason for the Maritime Administration Title XI loan guarantee program...to help domestic ship building by providing US govt backed loan guarantees. But even that is not enough in many cases. FGH will have a tough job ahead of it to out bid foriegn yards - and make money. And that is why I have said that they need to be world class deal makers, which in my opinion to date they are not. It is the art of the deal, not the geography of the deal that I refer to in saying 'world class'. Will a guy ordering a new rig pay X million more to get it built at FGH rather than in the Far East? That remains to be seen. And that is why the credibility and quality of work at FGH is so critical to its success. So far they have done a fine job of destroying credibility among investors. Has this spread to customers, or potential customers? I don't know. Boom 2000 - You ain't seen nothing like it. big atoffshore.com