Hunting Regulatory News (HTG)

Hunting PLC

("Hunting" or "the Company" or "the Group")

Operational Update

Hunting PLC (LSE: HTG), the international energy services group today issues an operational update for 2015.

The Preliminary Results for 2014 are scheduled to be announced on Thursday 5 March 2015 and the Company expects that the outcome will be in line with previous guidance.

The early part of 2015 has seen the global energy industry resetting its expenditure and profitability expectations in light of the anticipation of sustained lower prices for oil and gas. Expenditure estimates for Hunting's customers for the current year continue to evolve rapidly in light of changing oil prices.

As is common across the industry in which Hunting operates, equity market analyst expectations for financial performance during 2015 have not kept pace with the rapidly changing industry dynamics and as such the Company does not believe that these estimates should be relied upon as an accurate indicator of 2015 financial performance. Equally, as in common with a number of companies within the Oil Field Services sector, given the changes in its markets, Hunting does not believe that it is appropriate at this stage to provide financial guidance for 2015. However as information becomes available Hunting will endeavour to update the market more often than has been historical practice.

Hunting, like most of its peers, customers and suppliers, is re-aligning its business units to this new operating environment. We expect lower levels of industry activity as global rig counts decline and commodity prices remain subdued which will feed through to the Group's profitability for the year ahead. While Hunting anticipates a good performance in the early months of the year, most of our businesses expect the full impact of the lower oil price environment to be felt from Q2 2015. However, given Hunting's broad range of products and services and its geographic diversity, it is possible that some businesses will report growth in the year ahead, while others will be affected by the wider sector downturn. Hunting's Well Completion and Well Construction businesses are expected to be most affected whilst the impact on Well Intervention will be to a lesser extent.

Corrective cost-actions in response to market conditions across all of Hunting's operations are underway, including the reduction of operating shifts and hiring freezes, while those businesses which are most impacted by the lower levels of activity anticipated have begun programmes of headcount reductions as and where necessary. A broader programme to curtail or reduce any non-essential costs is also underway across the Group's global supply chain. Our balance sheet remains solid with modest levels of net debt and is well placed to support the Group. While the short term outlook for the industry remains unclear and challenged, we are also mindful of the longer term strategic growth opportunities for Hunting. The Group remains well positioned for any improvement in general market sentiment.

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About Hunting PLC

Hunting PLC is an international energy services provider to the world's leading upstream oil and gas companies. Established in 1874, it is a premium listed public company traded on the London Stock Exchange. The Company maintains a corporate office in Houston and is headquartered in London. As well as the United Kingdom, the Company has principal operations in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.