Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (OMEX)

[HoppaJohn]

#Update from OMEX President Mark Gordon#

Dear Fellow Shareholder,

We have been receiving a lot of calls and questions about the recent market action in OMEX stock. Unfortunately there is no practical way for me to speak directly to each of you individually. Although I have not yet officially taken the helm as CEO, the Board, Greg, and I have agreed that this seems like an appropriate time for me to initiate a series of periodic e-mail messages to shareholders and take the opportunity to address the concerns and questions that some of you have expressed.

The apparent catalyst to the sell-off on Tuesday was the most recent SS Central America project update. I believe the downside reaction of the stock is completely disconnected from the reality of the project. The suspension of the highly-profitable SS Central America project is temporary, was planned, and should have been anticipated based on prior communication. Here are some key facts to consider:

The project has been profitable from the first week and promises to be very profitable as this exceptional collection moves into the marketing phase.
Odyssey’s projected share of the monetized proceeds, based on the contract, is expected to generate enough cash to pay off required debt and produce a significant return on our investment in the project.
Tens of millions of dollars in gold have been recovered from the SS Central America site in the past five months, including a wide variety of denominations and mint marks. Many of the smaller denomination coins are worth more in the collectors market than the $20 Double Eagles.
We expected to work on this project for approximately five months in 2014. We have just completed our fifth month of work on the site. It had been our plan to move on to other projects at about this time and we are sticking with that plan. Our exclusive contract with the court-appointed Receiver allows for continued excavations over several seasons, so we intend to come back after a thorough evaluation of all the data from the site.
Our contract with the Receiver required us to meet at least one measurable milestone on the project in terms of the amount of the site area excavated. This was achieved in 2014.
As mentioned in the recent press release, based on first-hand information gathered from working on the site, the area to be inspected and evaluated has increased significantly. We spent considerable time conducting a large and detailed visual survey, which was completed just last week that adds to our knowledge base. Taking this break to evaluate the latest surveys, in order to plan the most efficient offshore operations going forward at the site, is the prudent and reasonable thing to do.

As was also mentioned in our press release, taking a break now coincided with necessary repair work on our ship and work on other projects. Our ship and personnel have been working 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the past five months in a very intense and complex operation. It is both normal and prudent to bring the ship and crew in at this time. I wish to thank the entire team on board the Odyssey Explorer for their tremendous work and excellent results during this expedition.

When we started this project, “nay-sayers” proclaimed that nothing of value would be recovered. Tens of millions of dollars in gold have been recovered, plus we’ve found an exceptional collection of cultural heritage artifacts, conducted a detailed scientific program, and we have now learned much more about the site formation and extent of the shipwreck’s debris field, which is much larger than previously believed.

Our management of this project is consistent with the message we broadcast to you in our most recent quarterly conference call. We told you that we were sharpening our focus on financial discipline with our projects. In the case of the SS Central America project, we mutually agreed with the court-appointed Receiver that this was the right time to temporarily suspend spending money on this project until our review of current results and further desk-based research provides guidance on how best to continue the project in the most cost effective manner.

The SS Central America project was a hybrid contracting model, whereby Odyssey will be repaid all of our project costs and receive a substantial share of the remaining value of the recovered cargo. Our financial objective was to generate at least a 30% gross margin on this project and as of today we expect it to be well in excess of that target. In fact, we expect Odyssey’s share of the recovered cargo to far exceed all the expenses we have incurred with respect to the project and the debt associated with the project proceeds.

When Odyssey was selected for the project, the contract stipulated that work was to begin in April. Odyssey agreed, pushing back our other planned projects. By September, we had recovered tens of millions of dollars’ worth of cargo from the shipwreck and had completed the measurable contractual obligations of the project. Both the Receiver and Odyssey agreed that it was an opportune time to pause and allow time to plan the next phase of the project while moving ahead with planning the monetization of the cargo already recovered.

We are looking forward to continuing with the project, but we want to do it in a carefully calculated manner. We must make the most efficient use of our assets to build our portfolio for the future. In this case, that means moving the Central America project to shore-based work for now, while preparing the Odyssey Explorer for other planned shipwreck projects. Our contractual rights for this shipwreck site are secured and we can now deploy our personnel and equipment on other projects that we had lined up.

Some of you voiced your concern about internet blog statements regarding our cash position. Let me reassure you that our cash position remains adequate based on our plans and we have several sources of additional funds. As we have stated in the past, we have additional capacity on our various credit facilities and can currently draw an additional $2.5 million tranche from our recently announced loan agreement. Furthermore, we believe we can monetize some of the various assets in our portfolio which range from a well-validated and world-class phosphate deposit to well-documented and known shipwreck cargoes that we can recover and monetize.

In addition to our press releases, our Investor Relations section of our web site, regular conference calls, and participation in various investor conferences throughout the year, I will also periodically write you such letters to address as many of your questions as I can. If you are reading a forwarded copy of this letter, please register for your own e-mail updates here: http://ir.odysseymarine.com/alerts.cfm?

I realize that 2014 has been a rough period for our shareholders, but I thank those of you who have kept your trust in the company and in our incredibly-talented personnel and excellent portfolio of projects. I will work hard to bring you updates on several of these projects in the very near-term.



Best regards,

Mark Gordon
President and COO
Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc.