LONDON (Alliance News) - Amec Foster Wheeler PLC Thursday reported a dip in pretax profit in the first half of 2015 as market conditions remained challenging, but the company said it is confident it can meet full-year expectations.
The oil and gas services company reported a GBP73.0 million pretax profit in the six months to June 30, falling from a GBP83.0 million profit a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP2.66 billion from GBP1.85 billion.
However, scope revenue, which is revenue less pass-through procurement revenue, fell to GBP2.58 billion from GBP2.61 billion.
Profit before tax, amortisation and exceptional items came in at USD165.0 million, which was up from GBP148.0 million a year earlier.
Amortisation and exceptional items knocked off GBP92.0 million from its pretax profit, whereas the year before it only came in at GBP65.0 million.
The company kept its interim dividend flat at 14.8 pence per share.
Amec Foster Wheeler said it expects revenue to benefit by around GBP50.0 million in the full-year results from a stronger dollar.
Oil, gas and mining market conditions are anticipated to remain challenging, particularly the upstream oil and gas segment. The downstream segment, particularly petrochemicals, "remains resilient," it said.
The clean energy segment will generate slightly less full-year revenue than the last financial year due to delays to the start of work for significant projects in its order book, the company said.
Amec Foster Wheeler said it has a "strong pipeline" which stands at GBP6.60 billion, which it believes it can grow going forward.
"Our expectations for the group's full year results remain consistent with previous guidance: underlying scope revenue is expected to be modestly lower than last year's pro forma result, and we continue to expect a reduction in trading margins," said the company.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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