LONDON (Alliance News) - Energy consultancy RPS Group PLC on Thursday said its pretax profit plunged as it fell victim to weaker activity in the oil and gas industry.
Pretax profit for the group fell to GBP9.9 million from GBP46.3 million a year earlier, a 79% plunge as the sharp fall in exploration and production spending in the oil and gas industry following the fall in the oil price severely hit the company's trading profit.
The group also booked a GBP20.0 million impairment charge related to the oil and gas downturn and made a GBP7.0 million bad debt provision.
Revenue fell to GBP567.0 million from GB572.1 million, as the oil and gas-related hit was partially offset by a recovery in the UK market and its acquisition of project management consultancy Metier in Norway. The group is also working to reposition away from the commodities industry to try and mitigate the problems.
RPS, however, said it would pay a final dividend of 5.08 pence per shares, pushing its total dividend up 15% to 9.74p from 8.47p, due to cash flow holding up well and the company finishing with a better net debt position than expected.
"The group produced a creditable result for 2015 against the backdrop of a major reduction in expenditure by our oil and gas clients, reflecting the flexible nature of our strategy and business model," said Chairman Brook Land.
RPS shares were down 0.1% to 185.00p Thursday morning.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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