Petrofac on course for 15%+ LFL profit growth

22nd Aug 2011 07:18

Oilfield services group Petrofac said it is on course to deliver like-for-like profit growth of at least 15% in 2011, in line with current market expectations."We are confident that we can continue the good progress that we have achieved in Engineering & Construction in the year to date. With high levels of backlog, we have outstanding revenue visibility which should ensure that we report strong growth in our full year revenues and we expect full year net margins to be in line with our medium-term guidance at around 11%," said Ayman Asfari, Petrofac's group Chief Executive Officer."While Offshore Engineering & Operations activity levels and revenues are expected to continue at record levels, net profit is expected to be lower in the second half of the year, as the first half benefited from significant progress on the SEPAT development and a provision release following completion of a long-term maintenance services contract. Net margins for the full year are expected to be substantially higher than in the prior year," Asfari said.Revenue in the first half of 2011 rose to $2.71bn from $2.17bn in the first half of last year.Profit before tax dipped to $299.59m from $416.98m last year, when the company enjoyed a gain on the EnQuest demerger in April 2010. Net profit rose 6.6% to $246.3m from $231.0m last year; the 2010 figure has been restated to exclude the gain on the EnQuest demerger in April 2010. Diluted earnings per share, also excluding the gain on the EnQuest demerger, rose to 71.84 cents from 67.31 cents (restated) the year before.Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), excluding the gain on the EnQuest demerger, were lower at $332.0m from a restated $349.7m in the first half of last year, following the demerger of the high EBITDA margin Don assets in April 2010.The order backlog at the end of June stood at $11.4bn, versus $11.7bn at the end of 2010 and $6.9bn at the end of June 2010.Gross cash balances at 30 June 2011 stood at $1.8bn, up from $1.1bn at the end of 2010.The interim dividend has been hiked 26.1% to 17.40 cents (10.54p) from 13.80 cents last year.Marwan Chedid, currently Managing Director of Engineering & Construction Ventures, is become Chief Executive of the Engineering, Construction, Operations & Maintenance (ECOM) division, and will report to Ayman Asfari.The ECOM division will comprise the following three business units: Onshore Engineering & Construction (formed by bringing together the existing Engineering & Construction and Engineering & Construction Ventures business units); Offshore Projects & Operations (currently known as Offshore Engineering & Operations) and Engineering & Consulting Services (currently known as Engineering Services).