Following on from February's shareholder revolt, Petroceltic International (PCI) accompanied its full-year update with news that it is considering a $175m (£111m) bond issue to shore up its balance sheet and provide necessary funding for its key Ain Tsila gas field in Algeria.
The full-year figures make for grim reading with an exploration write-off of $183m on unsuccessful wells in Kurdistan, Romania and Egypt, exacerbated by an $86m negative revaluation of the dual-listed driller’s overall oil and gas assets. Petroceltic booked an operating loss of $256m, against a profit of $16m in 2013. Operating cash-flow at $83m was down by a third on the previous year, though broadly in line with expectations.
Falling energy prices have weighed on the group's financial performance, but production constraints are also now feeding into the narrative. Due to disappointing existing performance and recent results from its Egyptian wells, full-year guidance for 2015 has been revised down to 14,000-15,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. This is down by around a third from the average rate through 2014.
However, net debt has been pared back significantly and the group has deferred certain exploration initiatives, focusing its strategy on the core Ain Tsila development, which accounts for the lion's share of Petroceltic’s risked valuation.
Peel Hunt analysts give a risked-asset value of 205p a share.
| PETROCELTIC INTERNATIONAL (PCI) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 105p | MARKET VALUE: | £224m | |
| TOUCH: | 104-106p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 224p | LOW: 99p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 154¢ | NET DEBT: | 46% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 0.3 | -12.6 | -0.7 | nil |
| 2011 | 0.4 | -8.2 | -0.4 | nil |
| 2012 | 59.4 | -6.7 | -17.8 | nil |
| 2013 | 197 | -4.5 | -10.7 | nil |
| 2014 | 157 | -272 | -144 | nil |
| % change | -20 | - | - | - |
Ex-div:- Payment:- £1=$1.57 | ||||
