Alessandro Clean since joining Saipem about a year ago he has worked hard to put his accounts in order after the profit warning of January 2022, which had caused the shares to fall by 30%. Now, with a completely restructured and refinanced Saipem, he goes into detail on the strategic plan of the group, outlining its contours and new features: it will not abandon the onshore, will relaunch thefloating wind farm, but will also bet on fertilizers, biorefineries e recycling. Without obviously neglecting its core business of drilling: this morning the news of the awarding of a new 400 million dollar order in Ivory Coast.
Analysts are positive and the stock skyrockets. TO Business Square in three months it has recovered 44,8% of its value, today it stands at 1,5745 euros (+3,79 %), although it is still far from the relative maximum reached in 2022 at 3,92 euros.
Yesterday the company released the data for 2022 which showed a notable recovery of both turnover and financial situation. Furthermore, during 2022 the company recorded a huge increase in new orders, doubled compared to the previous year.
Onshore, wind, fertilizers, biorefineries: the latest news from Puliti
There is no shortage of news for Saipem. Let's see which sectors the company, controlled by Eni and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, wants to focus on. “We do not abandon theOnshorand, but we are refocusing it, concentrating on the business areas where we think we are most competitive” Saipem CEO said, Alessandro Clean after the data. The areas in which these activities will concentrate concern “certainly the energy transition, and therefore plants Lng and plants of regasification”. But, she added, “the world also needs fertilizers and this is an area of historical presence of Saipem which years ago incorporated Snamprogetti which has a very important know-how. This is an area in great demand and is important for the sustainability of our country. The other sectors are the biorefineries and recycling".
Drilling: new contract for Saipem in the Ivory Coast and sale of assets for 750 million
Another news for Saipem arrived this morning: the company announced that, through the joint venture Eni Côte d'Ivoire and Petroci, it has been awarded a contract for drilling off the Ivory Coast the value of 400 million dollars which represents approximately 14% of the order intake expected by Saipem in the period 2023-2026.
This figure, says the company, is gross of the leasing costs of the vessel Deep Value Driller which will be used for operations: a seventh generation ship, one of the most modern in the world.
“The acquisition of this contract represents an important consolidation of Saipem's presence in the Ivory Coast” says the note, a strategic area where the company is currently carrying out the project for the development of the Baleine oil and gas field, recently discovered thanks to the drilling activities of the Saipem 10000 and Saipem 12000 vessels.
“It's good news,” he writes Intermonte, “which confirms the strong order momentum in the offshore segment”, in a context in which “Saipem's overall order intake in the fourth quarter reached 6 billion euros, for a total of 13,6 billion in 2022 (12,9 billion net of the deconsolidation of the onshore drilling segment).
But also in the drilling sector Saipem intends to bring order: Puliti in fact specified that it intends to raise around 750 million euros from the partial sale of assets in the field perforations mentioning especially shallow water craft.
The onshore project in Mozambique will restart in July
Last year Saipem had sold some onshore activities, corresponding to about half of the $1,5 billion it wanted to raise to strengthen its balance sheet. Part of the market expected this sector to be phased out. But even in this sector there is no shortage of news for Saipem: Puliti himself said after the presentation of the data that the company has entered into an agreement to make leave in July a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique for TotalEnergies. The project, which would be the first onshore development of an LNG plant in the African country, was suspended in 2021 due to safety concerns. The contract is worth 3,5 billion euros for the Italian group.
“We expect to gradually restart the project (in Mozambique), according to information received from our customers, starting in July this year,” Puliti said. The manager specified that Saipem does not have direct information on the human rights situation and safety in the province of Cabo Delgato, where the project will be located.
Earlier this month, TotalEnergies commissioned humanitarian actions and human rights expert Jean-Christophe Rufin to carry out an independent mission to assess the humanitarian situation in the province before taking a decision on restarting operations.
“We do not have direct visibility into the human rights report, but we have agreed with Total to restart operations in July (…). This implies that our client is confident of resolving the possible outstanding issues by that date,” Puliti said.
Offshore wind: new arrivals for Saipem
l is playing an increasing role in Saipem's strategy regarding the choice of new contracts that must bring results'offshore wind, which Puliti defines as the business pillar of the energy transition for the group. Yet the stranding of some floating wind projects was the basis of last year's profit warning.
This sector, now says the top manager “clearly it pairs well with traditional business of Saipem, which is a specialist in large offshore works”. To give a parameter, the acquisition of new E&C orders for around 46 billion euros estimated in the 2023-26 plan, foresees that around 25% in low/zero carbon segments, and that around 3 billion euros will come from offshore drilling . “The first synergy is precisely in the means we have in our fleet, think of the Saipem 7000 ship, which was born for oil & gas, but is now used exclusively in off shore wind power” he explained.
