29th Aug 2024 11:34
(Alliance News) - Hunting PLC on Thursday raised its interim dividend by 10%, as profit doubled, and it announced new contracts with North Sea oil operators.
Shares in the London-based manufacturer of equipment for the energy industry were down 4.3% to 410.44 pence on Thursday morning.
Hunting said pretax profit more than doubled to USD36.2 million in the six months that ended June 30 from USD15.7 million a year before. Revenue grew by 3.3% to USD493.8 million from USD477.8 million, while cost of sales declined by 1.4%, sending gross profit up 18%.
Hunting declared a 5.5 US cents interim dividend, up 10% from 5.0 cents a year before. Diluted earnings per share were 15.5 cents in the first half, up from 6.2 cents a year before.
Looking ahead, the company said a "record order book" underpinned continued growth. The sales order book was USD699.5 million on June 30, up 32% from USD529.7 million a year before.
Additionally, Hunting on Thursday said it has won organic oil recovery contracts with "major North Sea operators", which it didn't name. The work is worth up to USD60 million over five years. Hunting's organic oil recovery technology aims to optimise the reservoir performance of existing wells, improving recoveries with a lower carbon footprint than other enhanced oil recovery methods.
Hunting said it is "comfortable" with current market consensus for its 2024 results. Last month, Hunting raised its guidance for full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to a range of USD134 million to USD138 million. This will be up at least 30% from USD103.0 million in 2023.
Ebitda in the first half of 2024 was USD60.3 million, up 23% from USD49.1 million in 2023.
By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor
Comments and questions to [email protected]
Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Hunting