Lateral benefits for Hunting

An accelerated push for US unconventional oil sources provided the impetus for Hunting's growth, but the group's expansion will also be helped along by the £598m spent on four acquisitions made in the second half of last year. The largest of which was the £508m purchase of Titan, a Texas-based manufacturer of perforating gun systems and charges.

The acquisitions added £64.8m to turnover and £15.1m to profit, but on a like-for-like basis full-year revenues were still up an impressive 29 per cent to £544m, which helped drive underlying operating profits up 46 per cent to £65.9m. The business benefited from significant margin improvements, too, within its 'well construction' and 'well completion' segments, which at 14.6 per cent and 10.3 per cent, respectively, reflect hefty upward movements of 6 and 2.5 percentage points.

The acquisitions will allow the group to further exploit the growth in horizontal drilling and 'fracking', particularly within North America. Hunting should also benefit from a step up in the Gulf of Mexico, as big US players such as Chevron resume exploration and production activities following the hiatus brought about by the BP disaster.

Barclays Capital expects 2012 adjusted EPS of 56p (38.7p in 2011).