Petrofac swings to first half profit

Oil services company Petrofac said it made a $12m first half net profit compared with a $182m loss in the same period last year.

Revenue rose to $3.9bn from $3.2bn, helped by record levels of activity and expected to deliver full year results in line with expectations with a net profit of around $440m.

Petrofac booked a $123m exceptional charge for the first half and said profit excluding losses on the delayed Laggan-Tormore project were $236m. It said it had a strong bidding pipeline for engineering & construction for the second half of this year and into 2017.

The interim dividend was held at 22 cents a share.

“We have delivered a positive set of results for the first half of the year, reflecting good project execution. We are on track to meet expectations for the full year 2016 and our high level of backlog gives us excellent revenue visibility for 2017,” said chief executive Ayman Asfari.