Technip SA, Europe's second-largest oil-field-services provider, said fourth-quarter net income jumped as it benefited from higher prices for building gas terminals and offshore oil platforms.
Profit rose to 63 million euros ($82.7 million), or 58 cents a share, compared with 1.4 million euros, or 1.4 cents, a year earlier, Technip said in a statement published on Business Wire. Analysts expected profit of 59.2 million euros, according to the median estimate of nine surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Chief Executive Officer Daniel Valot is trying to regain investor confidence after twice cutting profit estimates last year because of higher-than-expected costs. Undersea piping projects in Angola and liquefied natural gas terminals in Qatar and Yemen improved the results.
``They needed to rebuild market confidence and they did it,'' Paul Andriessen, an analyst at Fortis Bank in Amsterdam with a ``buy'' recommendation on the shares.
Valot said in the statement the market for building oil and gas infrastructure ``remains buoyant.''
``After having stabilized our backlog in 2006, our target for the full year 2007 is to manage its growth by focusing on the most attractive projects,'' Valot said. ``We anticipate moderate revenue growth and further operating income improvement.''
Backlog's Total
Shares of Technip jumped as much as 5 percent and were up 2.7 percent at 51.89 euros at 9:21 a.m. in Paris.
Technip's order backlog totaled 10.3 billion euros at the end of 2006, down 8 percent from 11.2 billion euros at the end of 2005. Technip in the past has been criticized for signing projects with profit margins that were too thin.
Fourth-quarter gross margin, a measure of profitability, more than tripled in Technip's subsea unit to 119 million euros and jumped 85 percent in its offshore platform unit. ``It's now definitely a higher-grade backlog,'' Andriessen said.
Technip finished work on deep-water Angolan projects, including Total SA's Dalia field and BP Plc's Greater Plutino field. Its on-shore downstream unit, its largest by revenue, delivered a hydrocracker unit for Total's Normandy refinery and now has more than 44,000 workers at LNG terminals in Qatar and Yemen.
Valot, 62, retires in April after eight years as chief executive. He will be replaced by Thierry Pilenko, 49, who was chairman and chief executive of Veritas DGC, a Houston-based geophysical company that has merged with Compagnie Generale de Geophysique SA.
The Paris-based company more than doubled its net financial cash position to 1.54 billion euros from 686 million after cutting debt in half.
Technip said it increased its annual dividend 14 percent to 1.05 euros a share and will pay an exceptional dividend of 2.10 euros per share from the conversion of convertible bonds.
Profit rose to 63 million euros ($82.7 million), or 58 cents a share, compared with 1.4 million euros, or 1.4 cents, a year earlier, Technip said in a statement published on Business Wire. Analysts expected profit of 59.2 million euros, according to the median estimate of nine surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Chief Executive Officer Daniel Valot is trying to regain investor confidence after twice cutting profit estimates last year because of higher-than-expected costs. Undersea piping projects in Angola and liquefied natural gas terminals in Qatar and Yemen improved the results.
``They needed to rebuild market confidence and they did it,'' Paul Andriessen, an analyst at Fortis Bank in Amsterdam with a ``buy'' recommendation on the shares.
Valot said in the statement the market for building oil and gas infrastructure ``remains buoyant.''
``After having stabilized our backlog in 2006, our target for the full year 2007 is to manage its growth by focusing on the most attractive projects,'' Valot said. ``We anticipate moderate revenue growth and further operating income improvement.''
Backlog's Total
Shares of Technip jumped as much as 5 percent and were up 2.7 percent at 51.89 euros at 9:21 a.m. in Paris.
Technip's order backlog totaled 10.3 billion euros at the end of 2006, down 8 percent from 11.2 billion euros at the end of 2005. Technip in the past has been criticized for signing projects with profit margins that were too thin.
Fourth-quarter gross margin, a measure of profitability, more than tripled in Technip's subsea unit to 119 million euros and jumped 85 percent in its offshore platform unit. ``It's now definitely a higher-grade backlog,'' Andriessen said.
Technip finished work on deep-water Angolan projects, including Total SA's Dalia field and BP Plc's Greater Plutino field. Its on-shore downstream unit, its largest by revenue, delivered a hydrocracker unit for Total's Normandy refinery and now has more than 44,000 workers at LNG terminals in Qatar and Yemen.
Valot, 62, retires in April after eight years as chief executive. He will be replaced by Thierry Pilenko, 49, who was chairman and chief executive of Veritas DGC, a Houston-based geophysical company that has merged with Compagnie Generale de Geophysique SA.
The Paris-based company more than doubled its net financial cash position to 1.54 billion euros from 686 million after cutting debt in half.
Technip said it increased its annual dividend 14 percent to 1.05 euros a share and will pay an exceptional dividend of 2.10 euros per share from the conversion of convertible bonds.
No comments:
Post a Comment