Norway: Aker Solutions Announces First Quarter Results 2013

Aker Solutions announces results for the first quarter of 2013, with a generated revenue of NOK 11.1 billion, compared with NOK 9.8 billion in the first quarter of 2012.

Financial Highlights

– Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) amounted to NOK 868 million in the quarter, compared with NOK 1,040 million in the year-earlier period.

– The EBITDA margin was 7.8 percent in the quarter, compared with 10.6 percent a year earlier.

– Earnings per share (EPS) amounted to NOK 1.00 in the quarter.

– The order intake was NOK 25.5 billion in the quarter, up from NOK 11.3 billion a year earlier.

– The order backlog reached an all-time high of NOK 71.7 billion at the end of the quarter, an increase of 67 percent from a year earlier.

Key Developments

Earnings were impacted in the quarter by increased costs of about NOK 70 million at the Ekofisk Zulu platform project as work was accelerated to deliver the platform in mid-June. In addition, the umbilicals business area lost NOK 63 million in the quarter after Aker Solutions wrote down the value of several projects. The oilfield services and marine assets business area lost NOK 54 million as the vessels Aker Wayfarer and Skandi Aker were idle.

The company’s order backlog was bolstered by new contract awards for subsea production systems in key markets such as Brazil, West Africa and Norway. The subsea business accounted for 27 percent of total revenue at the end of the first quarter, followed by the maintenance, modifications and operations business with 26 percent and the drilling technologies business with 21 percent.

Positive Long-Term Trend

Demand for Aker Solutions’ products and services remains high in most regions. Tendering activity is also strong.

“The long-term trend in our main markets is positive,” says Øyvind Eriksen, executive chairman of Aker Solutions. “At the same time, we have recently seen that some customers are taking longer to make final decisions to award contracts. This makes it more difficult to predict short-term market developments.”

As communicated in a stock exchange release on 29 April, Aker Solutions expects earnings to be higher in the third and fourth quarters of 2013 compared with the same quarters a year earlier. The expectations are based in part on anticipated contract awards, particularly within the subsea business area.

[mappress]
Press Release, May 08, 2013