KUALA LUMPUR: SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd’s pre-tax profit for the second quarter (Q2) ended July 31, 2014 rose to RM526.69 million from RM450.14 million in the same quarter last year. The oil and gas provider’s revenue increased to RM2.69 billion from RM2.49 billion previously.
In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, SapuraKencana said the better performance was due to higher contribution from the energy and joint-venture businesses coupled with new contracts secured by wholly-owned unit SapuraKencana Energy Inc (SKEI).
The drilling division remained a strong contributor to the group’s profits and cash flows, due to high utilisation rates of its tender and semi-tender rigs backed by long-term contracts.
The fabrication, hook-up and commissioning division, however, recorded a weaker performance compared to the same quarter in financial year 2014, due to lower contribution from a number of projects nearing completion.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, President and Group Chief Executive Officer Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin said the company was optimistic that further significant discoveries would be made in its SK408 exploration block.
He said SKEI would drill another five wells in the SK408 on the same play.
SapuraKencana’s cash balance has increased from RM1.4 billion to RM1.6 billion in the last six months, with all divisions generating positive cash flows for the group.
“We are comfortable with the fact that the group’s investments continue to deliver strong earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortisation to service our debt and planned reduction of current gearing levels,” he said.
The company declared a 2.35 sen dividend, comprising a special dividend of one sen per share and interim dividend of 1.35 sen per share, which was paid to shareholders in July 2014.
With the group’s healthy order book of RM27 billion, Shahril expressed optimism that the producing upstream assets would continue to positively contribute to the group’s results. -- Bernama