Bibby suffered ‘dreadful’ first half at offshore arm

SIR Michael Bibby, managing director of the Liverpool-based conglomerate the Bibby Line Group, has lamented the “dreadful” performance of the group’s offshore services division.

In the group’s accounts for the year to December 31 Sir Michael said the Aberdeen-based Bibby Offshore division, which supports oil and gas operations at sea, had a tough year and recorded a pre-tax loss of £7m after revenues tumbled 18% to £89.2m

“The first half was dreadful,” said Sir Michael, “with poor utilisation of vessels in the North Sea and an extended drydock of Bibby Aquamarine in Asia.

“The team in Aberdeen had to work extremely hard to complete a large number of small projects to keep the vessels working during the year with repeat business being won from Maersk, ExxonMobil, Fairfield and PetroCanada.”

The shipping business was also affected by poor global demand and slipped into the red with an £89,000 loss – down from a profit of £1.7m last time – on sales of £40m, down 19%.

The group was bolstered by earnings growth in other areas, particularly financial services where its invoice finance arm nearly doubled profits to £34.8m on sales of £141.8m, up 18%.

Profits also rose sharply, to £7m from £5.8m, at the distribution business and from its 51% stake in the Costcutter retail chain – up to £4.4m from £2.7m on sales of £632.7m, up 6%.

There was also a 36% improvement in sales at Garic, the Bury-based plant and equipment group Bibby bought in 2008 and a 23% uplift at its woodland burial parks business.

Overall the group saw pre-tax profits rise by 42% to £31.1m, although the 2009 figure was affected by a one-off goodwill impairment of £4.3m. Sales rose 6% to £1.15bn.

During the year the firm invested in several new businesses within distribution, a new bulk carrier and a diving support vessel. It also opened a new financial services office in Hong Kong, acquired a factoring business in Sweden and developed training centres in Manila and Delhi.