Half-year numbers for Hurricane Energy (HUR) are somewhat academic, arriving after a flurry of post-period updates, and with cash generation from the Lancaster production system still several months away. The latter project hoovered up $150m (£114m) in the period and trimmed cash $210m by June, although Hurricane remains confident that its existing funds will take it to first oil, and first revenues.
That bullishness finds foundation in a project that remains – in a welcome departure from recent North Sea execution – on budget and on time. Any investors left confused by the first-half $75.1m net loss should therefore refer to a non-cash fair value adjustment on the derivative portion of Hurricane’s convertible bond. Exclude this, and losses were just $4.9m.
Much bigger news arrived at the start of this month, when Spirit Energy agreed to farm-in to Hurricane’s licences in the Greater Warwick Area. The deal, which grants Spirit a 50 per cent share in the field in exchange for a massive $378m carry in an appraisal and development programme, gives Hurricane options should Lancaster falter. It also provides further validation on fractured basement drilling.
Consensus forecasts are for an adjusted loss per share of 0.49¢ this year, swinging to a per-share profit of 2.58¢ in 2019.
| HURRICANE ENERGY (HUR) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 54.4p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.07bn | |
| TOUCH: | 54.3-54.4p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 59p | LOW: 24p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 31¢ | NET DEBT: | 31% | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
| 2017 | nil | -4.23 | -0.35 | nil |
| 2018 | nil | -75.1 | 3.83 | nil |
| % change | - | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
| £1=$1.32 | ||||
