Petroceltic (PCS) reported an impressive full-year surge in revenue and output, despite just a three-month contribution from Melrose Resources - the group merged with Melrose in October. Indeed, management says that revenues would have hit $254m (£167m) with a full-year contribution from Melrose. It's merger-related costs that explain the headline loss - operating profit, before exploration write-offs, actually improved to $4m from 2011's $6.4m loss.
Cash flow from Melrose's existing production base in Egypt and Bulgaria will provide additional funding for the enlarged group's nine-well exploration programme, together with the development of Petroceltic's key Ain Tsila gas project in Algeria. Meanwhile, significant operational milestones were achieved in the period - including a declaration of commerciality at the Ain Tsila and the subsequent booking of proven & probable (2P) reserves there amounting to 304m barrels of oil equivalent. It's envisaged that Ain Tsila will move into production during 2017 and management intends to mitigate some of the development costs by farming-out another 18 per cent stake in the project. Ain Tsila is expected to deliver plateau production of 355m cubic feet of gas per day over a 14-year period.
Broker Goodbody expects adjusted EPS of 0.7¢ for 2013 (from a loss per share of 0.5¢ in 2012).
| PETROCELTIC INTERNATIONAL (PCI) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 6.4p | MARKET VALUE: | £281m | |
| TOUCH: | 6.38p-6.46p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 8.75p | LOW: 5.46p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 12¢* | NET DEBT: | 40% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 0.96 | -3.70 | -0.44 | nil |
| 2009 | 0.21 | -6.12 | -0.51 | nil |
| 2010 | 0.27 | -12.6 | -0.69 | nil |
| 2011 | 0.42 | -8.17 | -0.37 | nil |
| 2012 | 59.4 | -6.68 | -0.71 | nil |
| % change | +14043 | - | - | - |
*Includes intangible assets of $105m, or 2.4¢ a share £1=$1.52 | ||||
