Shares Drop News

Sovcomflot's shares fell below their offer price in their market debut in Moscow on Wednesday after the initial public offering (IPO) of Russia's biggest shipping company was priced at the lower end of its range.Sovcomflot's IPO, the first share offering by a Russian state company since 2013, will allow the government to reduce its stake to 82.8% following the sale of new shares worth about $550 million.The deal was priced at 105 roubles ($1.34) per share, at the lower end of the initial guidance of between 105 roubles and 117 roubles per share…

Oslo-listed seismic surveyor TGS fell more than 10 percent after reporting disappointing third-quarter results on Thursday, as oil firms were still too cautious to spend despite a raft of upbeat earnings.TGS, which maps the seabed in search of hydrocarbon deposits for oil firms, reported quarterly operating profit of $24 million, down from $26 million a year ago and missing a forecast of $37 million returned by a Reuters poll.While oil companies like Shell, BP and Total are reporting bumper profits in the third quarter…

Shares of many shipping companies dropped in volatile trading, retracing more of their post-U.S. election gains after Seanergy Maritime Holdings on Friday became the latest shipper this week to announce a direct share offer pricing. Seanergy shares were down 28.2 percent at $2.80 after the $3.6 million offering, while shares of Top Ships were down 13.5 percent and shares of Globus Maritime lost 8.9 percent. The losses extend Thursday's decline in many of the shares after DryShips' announcement of a share sale that would give it proceeds of $20 million initially.

Litton Industries, after seeing its shares drop more than 60 percent over the past 12 months (see chart, page 2), caught in a bearish defense industry down draft, reported great third quarter results last week. Litton Industries reported that diluted earnings per share rose 23% to $1.35 for the third quarter, compared with diluted earnings per share of $1.10 for the third quarter of fiscal 1999. Excluding a one-time gain on sale of businesses, third quarter diluted earnings per share increased 21% to $1.33. Net earnings for the third quarter were $61.8 million versus $50.9 million for the same period last year. Revenue for the third quarter increased 11% to $1.4 billion, compared with $1.26 billion for the comparable period of the prior year.

Shares in Bouygues Offshore fell more than three percent in early Wednesday trade after the French oil services firm posted a 42 percent fall in first half net profit to 18.6 million euros from 32.3 million. But analysts, not concerned by the slump in profits that was in line or better than expectations, said they remained positive on the stock amid signs that BOS' orders were picking up. They attributed the share price slide to a knee-jerk reaction from the market at seeing profits slump but said it was not serious given the stock had risen 91 percent since a year low of 35.10 euros hit on January 5. "The figures are not catastrophic…

Shares of Friede Goldman Halter, which manufactures offshore equipment for the energy industry, plummeted on Tuesday after the company said it may have to seek bankruptcy protection and canceled a scheduled conference call with investors. Friede Goldman, whose problems stem from cost overruns on a number of oil rigs it is building, said it plans to reschedule the call. Shares of the Gulfport, Miss.-based company fell $1.52, or almost 63 percent, to $.90 on the New York Stock Exchange the day after it disclosed it was carrying $107.7 million in overdue debt. The company also canceled a conference call originally scheduled for Tuesday…

Shares of Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) fell almost seven percent in heavy trade last Thursday on talk there was some re-rating of the stock following changes in the MSCi index. The shipping group was down 15 cents or six percent at S$2.28 after hitting a low of S$2.26 earlier. Volume was a heavy 12.19 million shares. NOL had lost 10 percent of its value since the start of last week where it stood at S$2.54. "The selling has been very heavy since the start of the week. There is also an earnings downgrade by houses like Salomon Smith Barney," a broker said. A few houses have been downgrading the stock on concerns over higher bunker charges, but some analysts said it might be too early to state the actual impact on NOL.

Shares in Adsteam Marine Ltd fell 15 percent on Thursday after it forecast growth in earnings in the year to end-June 2001, but said activity levels in some Australian ports were down in May and June. Consistent with the slowdown in the Australian economy, coal and grain traffic had eased and containerized trade was weaker, but U.S. earnings would boost the bottom line, Adsteam said. "Compared with last year, we now expect EBITDA to increase by approximately 40 percent and EBIT to increase by approximately 25 percent," Adsteam said. "We expect the full year's operational result to reflect the benefit of a full year's contribution from Northland in the U.S. and a small contribution from the recently acquired Howard Smith Towage business," it said.

Shares of Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) fell almost seven percent in heavy trade on talk there was some re-rating of the stock following changes in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCi) index. The shipping group was down 15 cents or six percent at S$2.28 after hitting a low of S$2.26 earlier. Aside from the index news, there is reportedly concern that the group could be affected by rising bunkering charges. Put in perspective, the drop is minimal considering that NOL has been a top performer on the Singapore bourse this year, up nearly 350 percent.