Transocean Ltd.'s fourth-quarter profit fell 49% as the offshore
oil driller reported higher costs and a decline in fleet
utilization.
The quarterly results are the first since Transocean, the
world's largest offshore drilling contractor, in November detailed
a plan to put some of its drilling rigs into a master limited
partnership and take it public.
The move was aimed to placate activist investor Carl Icahn, but
also embraces a trend in the energy sector as other companies move
to unload pipelines, refineries and drilling rigs into such
partnerships, which don't pay corporate income taxes and pay out
most of their cash flow to investors in the form of distributions
like a dividend.
In the latest quarter, Transocean reported a profit of $233
million, or 64 cents a share, down from $456 million, or $1.26 a
share, a year earlier. Excluding impairments, tax benefits and
other items, adjusted profit fell to 73 from 91 cents a share.
Revenue inched up 0.3% to $2.33 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 72
cents a share on $2.36 billion in revenue.
Overall, costs and expenses climbed 5.7%.
Average daily revenue climbed 2.9% from a year earlier. The
fleet-utilization rate was 75%, down from 79% last year.
Separately, Transocean announced that a subsidiary awarded
contracts to a shipyard in Singapore to construct two
ultra-deepwater drillships. The total capital cost is estimated to
be about $1.2 billion. Transocean also entered an option to order
up to three more of the ships of the same design and
specifications.
Shares of Transocean dropped by a penny to $43 in after-hours
trading.
Write to John Kell at john.kell@wsj.com
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