Red Ink for Aker Solutions

Norwegian services player Aker Solutions booked Q4 2019 loss of NOK 148 million, against profit of NOK 178 million in the prior-year comparable period.

The result was impacted by restructuring and impairment costs as well as ‘very competitive market’ and contracts taking longer to be awarded.

Loss per share was NOK 0.58. Excluding special items, Q4 2019 EPS was NOK 0.8.

Depreciation, amortization and impairment for the quarter were NOK 396 million, while in the same period last year the company reported NOK 196 million charges.

The company also recognized special items impacting earnings per share in the fourth quarter 2019 of NOK 215 million, of which, NOK 106 million were foreign exchange losses related to the devaluation of the Angolan Kwanza.

Revenue rose to close to NOK 7.4 billion in the quarter from NOK 6.9 billion a year earlier, driven by good progress on a number of key projects.

For the full year 2019, Aker Solutions generated profit of NOK 83 million on revenue of NOK 29.3 billion, against profit of NOK 554 million on revenue of NOK 25.2 billion in 2018.

Depreciation, amortization and impairment costs in 2019 rose at NOK 1.54 billion from NOK 761 million in 2018.

Aker Solutions expects overall 2020 revenue at around the 2018 level.

The company said it is bidding for contracts totaling about NOK 60 billion, however, despite the active market the contracts are taking longer to be awarded.

The board has proposed that no dividend payment should be declared for 2019.