A marked increase in offshore field activity and a rise in margins driven by the rapid integration of acquisitions made in 2011 brought record full-year results and a substantial dividend hike from oilfield services engineer Hunting (HTG) .
The acquisitions of Dearborn Precision Tubular and Titan Group boosted sales and helped to push up operating margins by 300 basis points to 16 per cent. The performance of Dearborn was central to a 44 per cent rise in revenues within Well Construction to £279m. And increased offshore oil and gas activity meant Well Completion recorded a 40 per cent rise to £457m, around a quarter of which is attributable to Titan.
Revenues at Well Intervention rose by just 7 per cent to £56.7m, though, as the division recovers in the wake of BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster, while the performance of Gibson Shipbrokers improved despite continuing overcapacity in the sector. Overall, Hunting recorded a 51 per cent rise in underlying cash profits to £154m, with an accompanying 122 per cent hike in free cash flow to £86.5m. In addition, the resolution of a legacy tax issue and consequent release of provisions underpinned a 25 per cent fall in net debt to £164m.
Prior to these figures, broker Investec predicted adjusted 2013 EPS of 61.6p (56.1p in 2012)
| HUNTING (HTG) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 907p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.3bn | |
| TOUCH: | 907-909p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 977p | LOW: 681p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2% | PE RATIO: | 22 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 541p* | NET DEBT: | 20% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 420 | 5.7 | -3.60 | 9.9 |
| 2009 | 360 | 39.1 | 18.2 | 10.5 |
| 2010 | 420 | 33.0 | 15.6 | 12.0 |
| 2011 | 609 | 38.8 | 20.7 | 15.0 |
| 2012 | 826 | 80.7 | 40.9 | 18.5 |
| % change | +36 | +108 | +98 | +23 |
Ex-div: 12 Jun Payment: 1 Jul *Includes intangible assets of £490m, or 333p a share | ||||
