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LONDON (Alliance News) - Oil and gas engineering services company Plexus Holdings PLC on Wednesday said its pretax loss widened in the first half of its financial year due to a sharp decline in revenue as it was hit by the continued weakness in oil and gas markets.
Plexus said its pretax loss for the half year to the end of December was GBP3.5 million, compared to GBP2.2 million a year earlier, as revenue about halved to GBP6.8 million from GBP13.5 million.
The company, which is responsible for the POS-GRIP friction-grip technology for wellhead engineering, said it felt the sales decline most sharply in the North Sea, where it said investment levels have fallen by around 90%.
Plexus said it was encouraged by recent political and environmental pressures to move away from coal to gas, which would be positive for its technology, and said signs of a recovery in the oil price have emerged recently.
"Like all companies operating in the oil and gas sector, the rapid and sharp decline seen in the oil price over the last eighteen months, and particularly since late 2015, has significantly impacted our first half performance and current outlook as previously reported to the market," said Chief Executive Ben van Bilderbeek.
Van Bilderbeek added, however, that Plexus was confident on its outlook and on the future success for POS-GRIP.
Plexus shares were down 6.9% to 51.00 pence Wednesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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