30th Jul 2015 07:24
LONDON (Alliance News) - The Weir Group PLC Thursday said it expects a much stronger second half of the year after reporting a large fall in profit in the first half as the downturn in the oil and gas market continues to impact activity in the sector.
The engineering services company reported a pretax profit of GBP38.7 million in the first half of 2015, substantially down from the GBP157.7 million profit made a year earlier as revenue dropped to GBP999.7 million from GBP1.14 billion.
Pretax profit before exceptional items and amortisation came in at GBP108 million, also significantly down from GBP182 million. Operating profit fell to USD129 million from GBP201 million after its margin was squeezed to 12.9% from 17.6%.
Despite the fall in profit, Weir maintained its interim dividend of 15.0 pence per share from last year.
"This is the most severe downturn in oil and gas markets for nearly thirty years, and as a result North American upstream activity has reduced substantially. As we indicated through the first half, this has had a significant impact on the group's interim financial performance," said Chief Executive Keith Cochrane.
Cochrane said the company is expecting a "meaningful sequential improvement" in its financial performance in the second half of 2015.
Weir Group shares were down 1.4% to 1,509.00 pence per share on Thursday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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