Saipem closed the second quarter with a net profit of 75 million euros, up 23% from 61 million in the first three months of the year and against a loss of 440 million in the corresponding period of 2013. Revenues amounted to $3,07 billion, up 6,4% sequentially and 36,5% year on year. The operating result improved to 166 million from 127 in the first quarter and against a loss of 428 million last year. The orders acquired in the first half amounted to 13,13 billion, almost doubled compared to the 6,7 million of the same period last year: +9,23 billion those acquired during the second quarter (3,9 billion in the first three months ).
2014 for Saipem "will still be a year of transition". This was stated by the company announcing that it has revised the guidance for the current year. The "previous forecast of revenues between 12,5 and 13,6 billion euros has been set at 13 billion". Furthermore, "the gap relating to EBIT, expected to be between 600 and 750 million euros, has been narrowed to a level between 600 and 700 million", while "net profit of between 280 and 380 million euros is now expected between 280 and 330 million euros”.
"The well-defined path to bring Saipem back to normalization has not yet been completed, but we have already created the foundations for the recovery that will lead us to realize the full potential of the company in the medium term", commented Umberto Vergine, CEO of Saipem, in the note.
The ebit and profit targets, it is specified, "were impacted by some elements that emerged during the quarter, such as the slowdown in the start-up of some new projects, the suspension by Statoil of the Scarabeo 5 from October 2014 to January 2015, and the extension of the maintenance shutdown of the Scarabeo 7”.
To these factors must be added the incident in Brazil on the P55 project, also considering that "the effect of the new accounting standards Ifrs 10 and 11 which govern the consolidation of joint ventures affects the previous guidance". Saipem has also changed the 2014 forecasts on net debt, which go from 4,2 billion euros to a "range between 4,2 and 4,5 billion", reflecting "the uncertainty relating to the timing of payments linked to the positive conclusion of the ongoing negotiations on low-margin contracts”. Finally, the company "is confident in an improvement in working capital compared to current levels".
The stock market does not like the performance, especially in perspective: the Saipem share travels sharply down in the mid-afternoon in Piazza Affari (in contrast with the trend of the Ftse Mib which gains more than one percentage point), where it loses 3,2, 18% by falling below the XNUMX euro threshold a 17,83 euro.
