Robust James Fisher swims against currency tide
MARINE services group James Fisher overcame currency turbulence to declare a 13% hike in half-year profits to £21.9m.
The Barrow-in-Furness-based company’s chief executive Nick Henry said new orders from customers at home and in overseas markets had delivered the good results, despite a £1.5m hit from the strong pound.
In the six months to the end of June, James Fisher grew revenues by 8% to £216.1m with particularly strong performances in its Offshore Oil and Specialist Technical Divisions.
The picture in Marine Support – the second largest contributor to group profits – was skewed by a slow start to the year in south east Asia and Nigeria, which later impoved, and also by the strong pound.
Having acquired three businesses in the period for an outlay of £14m the company said it is still looking for attractive accretive targets.
Mr Henry said: “Our main focus will continue to be investing for organic growth going forward. We will also continue to evaluate further bolt-on acquisition opportunities which meet our niche criteria and where these will strengthen and broaden our range of services or geographical coverage to our multinational customers.”
Looking ahead, he said: “The group is well placed to deliver further value to shareholders and to date is trading to management expectations.”
The company raised its interim dividend 10% to 7.1p per share and said that its subsidiary Divex has been awarded a contract by Singapore-based shipyard Keppel Singmarine to supply a saturation diving system for the BP Exploration Shah Deniz II Project in the Caspian Sea.
