Bumi Armada earnings slump 18% to RM60m

KUALA LUMPUR: Bumi Armada Bhd’s earnings fell 18% to RM60.26 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2011 from RM73.65 million a year ago due to higher finance costs and taxation and higher vessel operating costs.

It said on Thursday, Aug 25 that revenue rose 40.9% to RM392.96 million from RM278.85 million. Earnings per share were 2.64 sen compared with 3.69 sen.

For the first half, its net profit was marginally higher by 1.4% to RM142.33 million from RM140.30 million a year ago. Its revenue increased by 42% to RM769.12 million from RM541.31 million.

Bumi Armada said the higher 1H revenue was mainly due to its new oilfield services (OFS) segment which included the ongoing conversion and sale of an FSO to Petrofac of RM158.0 million, and higher utilisation from its derrick pipelay barge, Armada Installer in Turkmenistan of RM104 million which commenced operation in May 2010.

However, these was offset by the reduction in floating production storage offloading system (FPSO) operating fee of RM35.0 million. This was due to a renegotiation of Armada Perdana’s contract effective June 2010.

Another factor was higher revenue in 2010 due to reimbursement of additional costs related to operations on Armada Perkasa which were previously expensed in 2008 and 2009.

“The group also posted a year to date increase in EBITDA of RM47.4 million or 15% on the back of its higher revenue. The EBITDA margin decreased from 59% to 48% in the current year to date mainly due to the ongoing conversion and sale of an FSO for the Sepat project recognised in the new OFS segment and fair value charge of a call option granted to an executive director amounting to RM6.2 million, which was expensed off,” it said.