
Swiber’s profit shrinks
Swiber Holdings has seen a deterioration in its latest financial results with its net profit down 14% on a year ago.
The marine services company said net income for the second quarter was $10.1m versus the $11.8m seen a year ago.
The Singapore-listed entity also reported a year-on-year decline of 9.4% in revenue to $219.3m, in the results released Wednesday morning.
Swiber saw a decline of over 40% in the amount of revenue secured from projects in Southeast Asia in the second quarter.
However, this was partially offset by four-fold increases in revenue from both South Asia and Latin America.
The Singapore-listed company managed to shave a small amount of operating costs which were down 1.3% from a year ago to $202.2m.
For the year-to-date, Swiber has won contracts worth $315m for projects across Southeast Asia and Latin America taking its order backlog to $610m.
“Riding on the strong momentum in the offshore sector, we have been actively bidding for major projects in our existing and target markets,” said Swiber chief executive Francis Wong.
“We have stepped up our business development efforts in Latin America and landed several contracts earlier in 2014 for subsea development and other projects in this market.”
Analysts expect Latin America to see a 29% increase in expenditure from 2014 to 2017 in comparison to the last five years.
“We believe the anticipated growth of the oil and gas exploration and production activities in Latin America, particularly with the energy reforms in Mexico, will present huge business opportunities for energy players,” said Wong.
“Over the past two years, Swiber has already formed an excellent base in Mexico to take advantage of the imminent opportunities.
“We will continue to build on our presence, network and track record to carve a stronger local reputation for ourselves in Latin America.
Looking ahead Wong said: “With a significant portion of projects commencing in the fourth quarter, we expect the last quarter to be higher compared to the first three quarters of 2014.”