LONDON (Alliance News) - Critical industrial services provider Cape PLC on Wednesday said it is trading in line with its own expectations, with strong performances in the UK, Europe, CIS and Middle East and Africa regions, but a mixed result in its Asia Pacific arm.
The group said its UK, Europe and CIS operations were continuing to delivery a "steady performance", with a good contribution from its Cape Specialist Services arm. It also said its prospects in the Azerbaijan market are improving, with a higher workload from its SOCAR Cape joint venture it operates with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan. However, activity in its Kazakhstan business is lower than historical levels as the timing of major projects in the country remains unclear, it added.
In the Middle East-North Africa region, Cape said it is performing well in its three main markets. It has been boosted by construction demand in Saudi Arabia, a strong margin performance in Qatar and small project and recovery contracts won in the UAE. In Qatar, the onerous contract the group took on, which resulted in a writedown in its results last year, is making good progress and it said it anticipates delivering the work on the deal in line with client expectations.
In Asia Pacific, the group said its performance had been mixed. The ramp up for the Wheatstone liquefied natural gas deal in Australia has been slower than expected, Cape said, though the workload is now increasing. Maintenance activity in Australia is still subdued, it added.
For the rest of the region, strong margins in the Philippines and Thailand have offset weaker performances in Singapore and Hong Kong.
To the end of October, the total order book was GBP636 million, slightly down from GBP643 million at June 29 this year. Cape said bidding activity remains high across all regions, in particular in Middle East-North Africa, though it said the UK order book has been impacted by the timing of key maintenance contracts which are expected to be renewed in the fourth quarter.
On the back of its peformance in the year to date and visibility in revenue for the remaining two months of the year, Cape said it expects its full year results to be in line with expectations.
Shares in Cape were down 1.4% to 277.931 pence on Wednesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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