US oil and gas slump plunges engineering giant into £446m loss

CHESHIRE-based Amec Foster Wheeler says its record solar and North Sea revenue has been offset by the week performance in oil gas in North and South America, plunging the firm into a £446m loss in the first half of 2016.

In the same period last year the company made a £73m pre-tax profit.

The company has incurred non-cash impairment charges and asset write-offs of £440m and is aiming to raise £500m from disposals by June 2017.

Chief executive Jonathan Lewis said: “Our industry continues to face very challenging conditions, with capital projects across natural resources markets being delayed and cancelled in many parts of the world. 

“Despite this, we continue to benefit from the diversity of our platform and we remain on track to deliver the operational guidance we gave at the beginning of the year.

“I have initiated a wide-ranging review of the strategy, our organisation structure and cost base – which we are now part-way through. I expect to update investors on these issues in the autumn.”

The interim dividend per share is down 50% to 7.4p from 14.8p. Revenue is up 7% to £2.842bn.