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(Alliance News) - Marine engineering services provider James Fisher & Sons PLC on Thursday reported a near double-digit revenue rise in 2019, helped by a strong second half, but an impairment charge relating to an acquisition weighed on profit.
In 2019, revenue came in 9.9% higher at GBP617.1 million from GBP561.5 million, while pretax profit slipped 14% to GBP47.8 million from GBP55.4 million.
Underlying pretax profit was 4.3% higher at GBP58.5 million from GBP56.1 million.
Chair Malcolm Paul said: "A strong recovery in our Offshore Oil division, further progress in Tankships and a broadly similar result in Specialist Technical, more than offset a weaker performance in Marine Support."
The company reported GBP10.7 million in "separately disclosed items", up sharply from GBP700,000 the year prior, hurting statutory pretax profit.
James Fisher booked a GBP9.0 million impairment related to the January purchase of a 60% stake in Murjan Al-Sharq for Marine Contracting LLC.
"The acquisition in January of a 60% shareholding in Murjan, a Saudi Arabian based company, has not gone as planned and local management have failed to achieve any significant influence over this entity. With reluctance, it was decided to exit the business, having exhausted all reasonable commercial solutions with the 40% shareholder," James Fisher added.
The company boosted its full-year dividend 9.8% to 34.7 pence from 31.6p.
Looking ahead, the company added: "With the offshore renewable energy sector continuing to grow robustly and the oil and gas market for our niche services recovering, the leading position held by a number of our businesses across a broad spread of services in diverse geographical locations underpins the board's confidence in the group's ability to provide continued growth in shareholder value."
Also getting a nod in its annual report was November's cyber attack. The company at the time said attackers tried to gain unauthorised access to its computer systems, but stopped short of providing specific details regarding the cyber attack. James Fisher had appointed external specialists, including a forensic cyber security expert, to investigate the incident.
"Our investigations identified no indications of any unauthorised extraction of personal or commercially sensitive data as a result of the incident. Whilst the incident did not significantly impact the group in trading terms, it did impact our ability to raise invoices and collect cash in the last quarter," James Fisher said on Thursday.
Shares in the company were 2.0% lower at 1,778.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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