TIDMAGK

RNS Number : 1118N

Aggreko PLC

14 May 2015

14 May 2015

TRADING UPDATE

The trading update covers the period from 1 January 2015 to 13 May 2015. Unless otherwise stated, figures quoted in this statement are for the quarter ended 31 March 2015.

Chris Weston, Chief Executive, commented:

"Whilst it is early in the year and the market environment remains uncertain, we continue to expect underlying(1) trading profit for the full year to be broadly in line with last year. We are making good progress identifying our business priorities and look forward to providing an update at the time of our interim results in August."

Trading

Underlying revenue for the first quarter was 4% ahead of last year, with reported revenue up 8%, benefiting from the currency translation effect of a stronger US dollar. All growth rates set out below are on an underlying basis.

Regional Trading

The Americas region grew 7% in the first quarter, driven by our Power Projects business and mainly as a result of our project in Panama which went on hire in quarter two of last year. The Local business was flat year on year, within which North American oil and gas revenue was up 6%. Towards the end of the quarter we started to see a decline in volumes and pricing in our shale oil business; this is being partially offset by growth in other sectors, particularly petrochemical and refining. The first quarter growth in oil and gas was offset by a slow start in the northeast of the US where the harsh winter affected us; lower activity in our Cooling Towers business; and our Chilean business, where we were impacted by the slowdown in mining.

Our Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region grew 10% in the first quarter with growth of 6% in our local business and 14% in our Power Projects business. Local business growth came from our businesses in Africa and initial revenues from the European Games in Baku. In Power Projects, the growth reflects the good level of order intake in 2014.

Finally, in Asia, Pacific and Australia (APAC) revenue was 13% lower than last year. Local business revenue was slightly down, within which Australia continued to decline, albeit at a slower rate; New Zealand and South Korea delivered strong growth. Power Projects revenue was 20% down, mainly from lower volumes on hire in Indonesia.

Business Line Trading

Our Local business grew 2% in the first quarter. Power and temperature control revenues were 4% higher, partly offset by slower growth in services revenue.

Power Projects grew 7% in the first quarter, with good performances from the Americas and EMEA. Order intake for the year to date is 388MW (2014: 413MW); last year's comparative included 170MW of summer peak shaving work in Saudi Arabia and Oman, which we don't anticipate in 2015.

Outlook

As we look forward, we expect growth to improve in the Local business, but it remains unclear what the full year impact of a lower oil price will be across all our markets.

In Power Projects, year to date order intake is solid and we are making progress on key contract extensions. However, external market conditions remain difficult in a number of our markets, in particular the security challenges in Libya and Yemen.

We anticipate fleet capital expenditure to be around GBP300 million for the full year, with GBP140 million now expected in the first half, reflecting planned investment in our gas fleet. As we have said in the past, our model allows us to flex this number up and down, and we will continue to do this based on the opportunities that we see in front of us.

Overall, as indicated in the March results announcement, underlying trading profit for the first half is expected to be lower than last year, principally due to higher mobilisation costs, with underlying trading profit for the full year being broadly in line with last year.

Conference Call

A conference call will be held today for investors and analysts at 8.30am (BST), hosted by Chris Weston, CEO and Carole Cran, CFO.

   Dial in:                            +44 20 3427 1909 
   Participant code:             1831593

A recording of the call will be available on demand for 7 days.

   Audio playback:               +44 20 3427 0598 
   Reference:                       1831593

Future Reporting

Aggreko will report its 2015 Interim Results and present the key business priorities on Thursday 6 August 2015.

Enquiries

 
 Investors & Analysts 
                                   +44 7876 478 
 Louise Bryant, Aggreko plc         272 
 
   Media 
 John Sunnucks / Lorna Cobbett,    +44 20 3772 
  Bell Pottinger                    2500

Notes to Editors

Aggreko currently has 120MW in Libya and 150MW in Yemen. In both countries we use a local contractor to operate the sites and currently have no employees in either country. We have operated in Yemen since 2005 and in Libya since early 2014.

(1) Underlying is defined as: adjusted for currency movements and pass-through fuel.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

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