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May 12 (Reuters) - Energy services provider Cape Plc said orders in the first quarter fell sequentially, hurt bydelays in key contracts in the UK and project deferrals at itsMotherwell Bridge unit.
Shares in the company fell as much as 12.2 percent in earlytrading on Tuesday on the London Stock Exchange.
Cape, which supplies scaffolding, insulation, industrialcleaning and fire protection services to oil and gas and powerplant operators, expects lower offshore project activity andreduced volumes from coal power station outages in the UK thisyear.
The company, which last year bought storage tank makerMotherwell Bridge, said order book during Jan. 1 to April 5 fellto 686 million pounds ($1.07 billion) from 746 million pounds atthe end of December.
Cape said it had signed contracts with BP Plc andExxon Mobil Corp worth about 150 million pounds sincethe end of the quarter.
Arden Partners analyst Daniel Slater said the "solid demand"for Cape's core maintenance activities was reassuring, and thatits strong presence in the Middle East and North Africa regioncould lead to "decent growth" in the second half of the year.
Cape said it remained on track to deliver withinexpectations for the year.
The company's shares were down 5.2 percent at 254 pence at0745 GMT.
($1 = 0.6421 pounds) (Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing byGopakumar Warrier)
