Form is temporary; class is permanent. Oil equipment specialist Hunting (HTG) has offered shareholders a little festive cheer via a positive trading update that also detailed some encouraging news on its banking covenants.
With a pronounced second half weighting, cash profits are now expected to be “nearer the upper end of market expectations”, due largely to the performance of Hunting Titan (perforating guns and setting tools) during the second half of the year. The group is continuing to keep a tight rein on capital expenditure and a positive net cash position is in prospect for the year-end.
Hunting has started to cancel the "suspension period" of bank covenants over its borrowing facilities and re-institute the facility's original net debt to cash profits and interest cover covenants; the covenants were suspended when it became obvious towards the middle of last year that it would breach them.
