Engage Xr Regulatory News (EXR)

28 Sep 2005 07:01

Expro International Group PLC28 September 2005 EXPRO INTERNATIONAL GROUP PLC Pre-close trading update for the half year ended 30 September 2005 Expro International Group PLC ("Expro" or the "Company") announces today thattrading during the six months ending 30 September 2005 is in line withexpectations and the Board remains comfortable with the current analysts'expectations for the Financial Year 2005/6. Success in securing furthersignificant contracts, detailed below, both underpins current strong marketpositions, and, through phased delivery over a number of years, provides ahighly visible platform for our continued growth. Key Senior Management Appointments In order to maintain and further improve our strong customer focus in a dynamicmarket environment, the Company has evolved its organisational structure toalign more closely with the markets it serves. We are therefore pleased toannounce three key senior management appointments with immediate effect. RobinMair will lead the Global Portfolio of businesses, that are largely driven bycustomer capital spend, consisting of the Tronic/Matre, Subsea Safety Tool("SST") and Early Production Facility ("EPF") businesses, whilst Gavin Prisewill take charge of the mainly opex driven Regional Portfolio consisting of theCased Hole Services and Well Test businesses. These two internal promotions arecomplemented by the appointment of Trevor Burgess who joins the Group tochampion our emerging Rigless (Enterprise) Technology. New Contract Wins totalling almost $200m Within the Regional Portfolio there have been over $100m of contract awards inrecent months. This total is a blend of $35m of extensions to existing majorcontracts, including Well Testing for KPO in Kazakstan and EGIS services forShell in the North Sea, and $65m of new contracts. The new awards include multiyear contracts in Angola for bp (Block 18 and Block 31) and Total (Block 17),establishing critical mass in the key West African area of deep water fielddevelopment. The value of currently announcible major contract wins across the globalbusinesses is in excess of $70m, with SST accounting for the majority of this.Indeed new SST contracts for Chevron (Lombito Tomboco and Agbami), Total (Akpo)and Exxon (Erha) further strengthen Expro's presence in West Africa. Troniccontinues to enjoy the benefit of increased demand for deep water, hostileenvironment, power and instrumentation connectors and the successful integrationof Matre is nearing completion. The EPF engineered for Exxon's flagship ChayvoProject in Sakalin is now complete and commissioned to plan, and the EPFequipment committed to the recently concluded Tuscan project has been recoveredand is currently being bid on several other new projects. Baker Hughes, our 50% JV partner in QuantX, has recently informed us that theywish to exercise their Call Option to purchase our remaining interest in thebusiness. The option price will be calculated according to a contractuallypredetermined formula. At this point the transaction is anticipated to completemid autumn and is not expected to have a material effect on the year endearnings. Graeme Coutts, Group CEO commented: "I am very pleased to announce the furtherprogress Expro is making, evidenced by the evolution of the organisationalstructure and almost $200m of new contract wins, bringing the total value ofcontracts announced in the current year to $400m. Our core business continues to perform in line with expectations allowing us toprogress with our key investment strategies. It has come as no surprise to theBoard that our JV partner Baker Hughes should choose to exercise their right toacquire our 50% stake in the QuantX business. QuantX has always provided abetter fit for their core activities due to the associated product pull-through." Expro will be announcing its Interim Results for the half year ended 30September 2005 on Thursday 24 November 2005. - Ends - Note to Editors: Expro International Group PLC is a leading upstream oil and gas technology andservice provider, specialising in well performance and production optimisation.The Expro Group employs over 2,300 people worldwide and is an innovative leaderin oilfield technology which enables clients to maximise recovery of theirreserves. For more information, please refer to the Group's website atwww.exprogroup.com . For further information please contact: Expro International Group PLC Until 30 September 2005: 01224 225951Graeme Coutts, Chief Executive Thereafter on 0118 9591 341Michael Speakman, Finance Director Weber Shandwick Square Mile 020 7067 0700James Chandler / Stephanie Badjonat This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange