Lamprell, the UAE rig-maker, moved back into the black with a US$39.2 million profit last year but warned investors to expect muted revenues ahead.
Although the company recovered from its loss in 2012 of $111.5m, a slightly shrunken order book will push down revenue this year and the next, it said yesterday in an earnings release.
Revenue ticked up slightly last year to $1.09 billion from $1.02bn in 2012, and cash grew to $183m from $104m in 2012. The value of existing orders totals $900m, and it has bids worth $4.7bn.
“I’m not saying the results were good, but they were not as poor as I expected,” said Andrew Whittock, an analyst at Liberum Capital in London. “The business has clearly been stabilised and is looking forward now almost as normal, and what investors will all wait for is some new contract wins to build the backlog and give some visibility going forward.”
Shares of Lamprell trading in London fell 6.7 per cent to 139 pence after the announcement.
“The order intake during 2013 was lower than in previous years, and accordingly revenues for 2014 and 2015 are expected to be slightly lower than 2013 while the group rebuilds its order book,” said Jim Moffat, the chief executive. “In the meantime, we are focusing on improving productivity and cost efficiency in the business and we expect to start seeing the results from our improvements during the course of 2014, although the full benefit is not anticipated to materialise until 2015.”
Lamprell has given itself a makeover since 2012, when it issued five profit warnings over delays in delivering wind turbine vessels and was later fined Dh13.3m by the market regulator for failing to alert investors swiftly enough.
Since then it has installed a new chief executive, sold off a subsidiary for $66.2m and refocused itself in vessels catering to oil and gas, rather than new markets such as renewables. The company, which has a workforce of 10,000 at shipyards in Hamriyah, Sharjah and Jebel Ali, is continuing to evaluate selling other parts of the business, said Mr Moffat.
ayee@thenational.ae
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