Despite a double-digit rise in revenue, reported profitability for James Fisher (FSJ) pulled back through 2019 after the marine engineering specialist was forced to book a hefty impairment linked to the purchase of a 60 per cent stake in Murjan Al-Sharq for Marine Contracting LLC. The group failed “to achieve management control of this business” and was forced to pull out of the arrangement, “having exhausted all reasonable commercial solutions”.
The troubles weren’t confined to Saudi Arabia. James Fisher was subject to a cyber attack in November. A subsequent investigation revealed “no indications of any unauthorised extraction of personal or commercially sensitive data”, although the incident did hamper the group’s ability to raise invoices and collect cash in the last quarter, presumably the reason behind the 15 per cent rise in receivables.
If you disregard one-off impacts, then underlying operating profit was 7 per cent to the good at £66.3m, a reflection of continued recovery in the offshore oil division, although it is unclear the extent to which recent weakness in crude oil pricing will impact on industry demand.
Undeterred, James Fisher continues to capitalise on the rapid growth of the offshore renewable energy sector, with new phases of work in the East Anglia One offshore wind farm, and its first work scopes on Triton Knoll, off the coast of Lincolnshire.
Consensus forecasts compiled by Bloomberg give EPS of 100p in 2020, rising to 107p in the following year.
| JAMES FISHER (FSJ) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 1,784p | MARKET VALUE: | £899m | |
| TOUCH: | 1,784-1,788p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 2,280p | LOW: 1,756p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.9% | PE RATIO: | 24 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 621p* | NET DEBT: | 70% ** | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2015 | 438 | 46.2 | 79.7 | 23.8 |
| 2016 | 466 | 44.9 | 79.4 | 26.2 |
| 2017 | 499 | 47.3 | 77.5 | 28.7 |
| 2018 | 562 | 55 | 89.5 | 31.6 |
| 2019 | 617 | 48 | 73.1 | 34.7 |
| % change | +10 | -14 | -18 | +10 |
| Ex-div: | 02 Apr | |||
| Payment: | 08 May | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £215m, or 427p a share. **Includes lease liabilities of £30.2m. | ||||
