Lamprell (LAM) chief executive Christopher McDonald and his team “firmly believe [the company] will return to growth” in 2019. And while it remains the preferred bidder on several major contracts, the performance in the year to date has hardly convinced. Low activity levels pushed the group to another net loss – $21.9m (£16.7m) at the half-year mark – while the backlog has halved in six months to just $61.7m.
The good news is that the specialist fabricator has already completed refurbishment of 21 rigs (with two more ongoing) during 2018. That’s three times as many refits as the comparable period in 2017. But increased bidding activity doesn't automatically presage a wide-scale retracement in oil equipment budgets – operational expenditure continues to trump capex - and the newbuild jackup rig market remains largely moribund. Management said that any new awards would have “minimal impact” on full-year results and has pared back revenue guidance to a range of $225m to $250m.
Broker consensus guides for a pre-tax loss of $61.7m for 2018, giving an adjusted earnings loss of 18.3¢ a share, before partially recovering to respective losses of $31m and 12¢ in 2019.
| LAMPRELL (LAM) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 67.4p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 230m | |
| TOUCH: | 67.4-68.1p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 105p | LOW: 57p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | NA | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 129¢ | NET CASH: | $156m | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
| 2017 | 159 | 1.2 | 0.31 | nil |
| 2018 | 155 | -20.9 | -6.42 | nil |
| % change | -3 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | - | |||
| Payment: | - | |||
| £1 = $1.31 | ||||
