Hunting expects full year profit to plummet 90%

Hunting said it believe its full year profit will drop by around 90% due to weak market conditions.

The FTSE 250 energy services group issued a trading update on Tuesday covering its performance since 27 August.

It said trading during the third quarter remained subdued as the global energy industry continued to cancel or defer capital expenditures.

The falling price of WTI Crude has also had an impact, leading to further caution from customers and month-on-month trading volatility.

As a result, the company’s profit has already declined by 85% in the year to date compared to 2014.

The group is attempting to combat this by delaying a number of its capital investment programmes including the Singapore Campus project, as well as cutting costs throughout the year.

But it said the outlook is not good for the full year.

“Given these weak market conditions and on the assumption that current levels of profitability prevail for the remainder of the year, our 2015 full year results are likely to reflect a year on year profit from continuing operations decline in the region of 90%,” the trading update said.

However the company reported it still has a strong balance sheet with no significant change to the financial position since its half year results issued in August 2015.

Capital investment is forecast to be approximately $80m (£51.9m) in the current year while the group's net debt position at 31 October was approximately $165m (£107m).

It also agreed new five year $350m (£227m) revolving credit facility in October 2015, replacing the old facility which was due to expire in August 2016.