Swiber Holdings Limited, an integrated construction and support services provider to the offshore oil and gas industry, has achieved a 106.4% increase in net profit to US$52.8 million notwithstanding a 35.6% decline in revenue to US$199.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014.
A significant portion of on-going projects was recognised in FY2013 while recently awarded projects have not started, hence there was some impact on topline.
Overall, net profit was buoyed mainly by higher operating income, which increased by US$90.7 million to US$97.1 million in 1Q2014, from US$6.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2013 (“1Q2013”), as Swiber recognised a net gain of US$95.1 million from the disposal of its subsidiaries.
At the same time, share of profit of associates and joint ventures rose 111.3% to approximately US$10.0 million, mainly due to the contribution from the Group’s associates in both Indonesia and Singapore.
Commented, Francis Wong , Group Chief Executive Officer and President of Swiber, “We are pleased to see that the subsidiaries that we’ve nurtured; and relationships with associates and joint ventures that we’ve built-up over the years, have come to fruition.
“Operationally, with further integration of our business, more recently, the expansion of our yard operations, we are now on an even stronger footing than before. We will seek out synergistic opportunities to expand our business further.”
Cost of sales had decreased to US$190.5 million in 1Q2014 from US$259.9 million in 1Q2013, in line with the lower revenue in 1Q2014.
Other operating expense increased to US$31.3 million mainly due to fair value loss on financial liabilities of option shares of an associated company.
Finance costs increased to US$13.8 million in 1Q2014 from US$9.3 million in 1Q2013.
Overall, EBITDA rose from US$44.3 million in 1Q2013 to US$76.5 million in 1Q2014 and EBITDA margin jumped from 14.3% to 38.3% over the same period.
Indicative of the Group’s stronger 1Q2014 results as compared to the previous corresponding quarter, Swiber’s basic earnings per share, was up at 7.9 US cents in 1Q2014 from 3.3 US cents in 1Q2013, while net asset value per share rose from 89.7 US cents per share to 97.7 US cents per share.