THIRD QUARTER TRADING UPDATE

9 November 2015

THIRD QUARTER TRADING UPDATE

EXPECTATIONS FOR THE YEAR UNCHANGED

The trading update covers the period from 1 July 2015 to 8 November 2015. Unless otherwise stated, figures quoted in this statement are for the quarter ended 30 September 2015.

Chris Weston, Chief Executive, commented: "Aggreko continues to demonstrate its resilience against a challenging market backdrop and I am pleased that we are maintaining our guidance for 2015 full year profit before tax of between £250 and £270 million. Whilst we are at an early stage in delivering the specific actions identified at our business review in August, I am encouraged with the progress we are making which, regardless of the prevailing market conditions, will strengthen Aggreko and position it well for the future."

Trading

Underlying1 revenue for the third quarter was 7% behind last year with reported revenue down 6%. All growth rates set out below are on an underlying basis.

Business Unit Trading

Rental Solutions revenue was down 1% on last year. The on-going weakness in the oil and gas and mining sectors, has been largely offset by continued growth in other sectors, such as petrochemical and refining. We also saw a strong temperature control season in North America and Continental Europe.

Power Solutions revenue was 11% lower than the same period last year. Within this, Industrial was 12% higher, including the successfully executed European Games. We also saw solid growth in our Russian and African businesses. However, the continuing weak economic backdrop in Brazil is having an impact on our business.

Utility revenue in Power Solutions was 21% lower than last year, driven by the previously announced price reduction on our contract extension in Bangladesh and the off-hiring of our contract in Panama; excluding the impact of these, revenue was down 12%. Order intake year to date is 561MW (2014: 697MW); last year's comparative included 170MW of summer peak shaving work in Saudi Arabia and Oman. In addition, we have extended our 260MW of gas contracts in Mozambique until the end of the year. The closing order book at the end of the third quarter is strong with the equivalent of 14 months of forward revenue cover, reflecting the number of contract extensions secured this year.

Management Change

We are delighted to have recently announced the appointment of Nicolas Fournier as Managing Director, Power Solutions. Nicolas joined Aggreko on 2 November 2015 and brings over 25 years of international experience. Nicolas' appointment allows Chris Weston to return to his main role as Chief Executive and further focus on delivering the business priorities.

___________1“Underlying” is defined as: adjusted for currency movements and pass-through fuel revenue from Power Solutions, where we provide fuel to our contracts in Mozambique on a pass-through basis.

Business Priorities

At this early stage we are on track with the implementation of the business priorities we outlined in August this year. The Programme Management Office is in place with each of the initiatives now sponsored and embedded in the business. In line with our priorities, we announced a bolt-on acquisition on 2 September 2015 of ICS Group, a leading provider of specialist heating solutions in Canada.

Capital Expenditure

In recognition of the trading environment and as we seek to balance growth with maintaining a strong balance sheet, we have further flexed our capex plans for the current year and now anticipate spending around £250 million on fleet (2014: £226 million). 

At this stage, we anticipate first half 2016 fleet capex to be in the region of £120 million (2015: £138 million) and consistent with past practice we will give full year capex guidance for 2016 at the time of our full year results in March 2016.

Outlook

At a Group level, we continue to expect that the underlying revenue trend in the second half of the year will be similar to that in the first half, reflecting the on-going challenging market conditions.

Overall, our guidance for profit before tax for the full year to be between £250 million and £270 million at average exchange rates remains unchanged.

Conference Call

A conference call will be held today for investors and analysts at 9.00am (GMT), hosted by Chris Weston, CEO and Carole Cran, CFO.

Dial in: + 44 20 3059 8125

Conference call name: Aggreko Third Quarter Trading Update

A recording of the call will be available on demand for 7 days.

Audio playback: + 44 121 260 4861

Reference: 2144095#

Future Reporting

Aggreko will report its 2015 Full Year Results on Thursday 3 March 2016.

Enquiries