27th Jan 2016 08:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - Energy consultancy RPS Group PLC on Wednesday said trading in 2015 met its expectations, despite the turmoil in the oil and gas industry that it serves, though it said it will be cutting more costs in its energy arm due to the challenging environment.
RPS said it saw a significant fall in spending by its oil and gas clients over the course of 2015 and, even after cutting costs in its energy arm, still saw its contribution to its results diminish significantly. In addition, the group said market conditions worsened towards the end of the year, as the oil price slump continued.
As a result of the continued challenges, RPS said it will reduce the capacity of its Energy practice again in order to take more costs out of the business. It expects to book a non-cash impairment charge of around GBP20.0 million in its 2015 accounts related to the restructuring and also said it will review the debtor position of its energy arm, which may result in it taking another GBP7.0 million provision against bad debts.
RPS shares were down 17% to 173.00 pence early Wednesday, easily the worst performer in the FTSE All-Share.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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