Aker Solutions Swings to Loss

Aker Solutions has booked a net loss of NOK 250 million in the fourth quarter 2015 versus net income of NOK 359 million a year earlier.

This constituted a loss per share of NOK 0.83 compared with earnings per share (EPS) of NOK 1.30 in Q4 2014. Excluding special items, Q4 2015 net income was NOK 236 million. Full-year net profit was NOK 383 million, compared to NOK 1.3 billion in 2014.

Revenue decreased to NOK 7.9 billion in the quarter from NOK 9.2 billion a year earlier amid declining market activity, particularly in the North Sea.

Full-year revenue fell to NOK 32 billion from NOK 33 billion the prior year. EBIT was NOK 958 million compared with NOK 2 billion in 2014. The EBIT margin narrowed to 3 percent from 6.1 percent. Excluding special items, EBIT was NOK 1.9 billion compared with NOK 2.2 billion a year earlier and the EBIT margin was 6 percent versus 6.8 percent.

Subsea revenue declined in the fourth quarter to NOK 4.8 billion from NOK 5.5 billion a year earlier amid lower activity levels, particularly in the North Sea.

Revenue in Field Design, which consists of MMO and Engineering, slipped to NOK 3.2 billion in the quarter from NOK 3.7 billion a year earlier.

The quarter was affected by NOK 636 million in one-off costs, including NOK 373 million in restructuring and capacity reduction costs and a provision of NOK 114 million to cover lease costs on vacated office space.

At the end of fourth quarter, the order backlog was NOK 40 billion, more than two-thirds of which was for projects to be delivered outside Norway, with the biggest share in West Africa.