Like the faint pulse of a black box on a rescue ship radar, Exillon Energy (EXI) has released its 2017 accounts. For chief executive Dmitry Margelov, this was a “reasonably successful year”, although long-suffering investors might feel otherwise.
Turn to the income statement, and Mr Margelov seems to have a point. Despite a 23 per cent decline in output from the oil company's fields, cash profits per barrel climbed 48 per cent to $20.80 (£15.10) – handy, given a domestic selling price of $35.
Net profits also ticked up 18 per cent to $47.6m, although cash flows were less bountiful; capital expenditure nearly doubled to $17.9m in the period, although this only accounts for “completed and accepted construction works and services”. In the event, Exillon has used its cash pile and a loan from sanctions-hit Gazprombank to advance $270m to third parties to drill dozens of new wells and build infrastructure at Exillon’s Timan-Pechora and West Siberia fields.
While Exillon remains disengaged from the market, shareholders can at least pin their hopes on EY, whose audit of the investment programme revealed “no evidence of asset misappropriation in relation to the supplier advances”. The auditor made no mention of the $500,000 bonus awarded to chairman Sergey Koshelenko, who the remuneration committee singled out for his “substantial time commitment” since joining in 2014.
| EXILLON ENERGY (EXI) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 70p | MARKET VALUE: | £113m | |
| TOUCH: | 67-72p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 155p | LOW: 66p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 3 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 329¢ | NET DEBT: | 22% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
| 2013 | 321 | 38.9 | 20 | nil |
| 2014 | 260 | 64.6 | 32 | nil |
| 2015 | 198 | 78.8 | 41 | nil |
| 2016 | 127 | 51.8 | 25 | nil |
| 2017 | 137 | 65.7 | 30 | nil |
| % change | +8 | +27 | +20 | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
| £1=$1.37 | ||||
