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LONDON (Alliance News) - Capital Drilling Ltd said Thursday its interim revenue dipped on lower fleet utilisation.
For the six months to June 30, the company, which provides drilling solutions on the African market, posted revenue down 13% to USD54.4 million from USD62.3 million.
The company said that the dip in revenue was due to a reduced fleet utilisation, which fell to 46% from 56% a year ago, as it "continues to redeploy assets to West Africa".
Pretax profit increased slightly to USD5.0 million from USD4.5 million a year prior as cost of sales was reduced at a faster pace than revenue, shrinking by a quarter to USD33.7 million from USD44.9 million.
The company increased its interim dividend by 20% to 0.6 cents per share from 0.5 cents a year ago.
The company said that trading conditions "continue to be supportive" with "elevated levels of enquires and tendering requests", as it maintained its upgraded revenue guidance for 2018 of USD105 to USD115 million.
Capital Drilling shares were trading down 9.1% at 40.00 pence each.
