3rd Feb 2015 07:33
LONDON (Alliance News) - BG Group PLC Tuesday reported significant impairment charges driven by low commodity prices and said it will slash its capital expenditure budget by up to USD7 billion in 2015, as it reported fourth-quarter earnings that outperformed analysts' expectations.
The company reported profit excluding impairment charges of USD915 million in the fourth quarter ended December 31, down 19% from the USD1.13 billion reported a year earlier, but higher than analysts' estimations.
It booked a pretax non-cash impairment charge of USD8.9 billion, or USD5.9 billion post-tax, in the fourth quarter, driven by the significant fall in global commodity prices. It reported a USD5.03 billion net loss including the impairment charges.
BG Group has recommended a final dividend of 9.52 pence per share, resulting in a full year dividend of 17.99 pence per share, which is in line with 2013.
The company has also committed significantly less to its capital expenditure budget for 2015, which will be reduced by USD6 to USD7 billion compared with 2014.
BG reported a cash balance of USD5.3 billion, and is expecting to receive a further USD5.5 billion in the first half of 2015 from its divestments.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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