Kvaerner Lifts 2017 Forecast
Kvaerner, the Norwegian builder of oil platforms, lifted its 2017 outlook on Monday as a slump in the oil sector eased with a year-on-year lift in crude prices.
Kvaerner's clients, oil companies, have reported forecast-beating earnings so far in this quarter, helped by a 55-percent jump in oil prices from a year ago, including Norwegian major Statoil last week.
"Since the oil price started a decline in 2014, the market for both new investment projects and for operation of existing facilities has been turbulent. Kvaerner sees signals that the decline may now start to level out," it said in a statement.
The company now expects gross revenues this year of seven billion crowns ($815.30 million) up from the six billion crowns it was expecting for this year in February.
Its order backlog rose to 10.8 billion crowns at the end of the quarter from 6.46 billion at the end of the fourth quarter.
Still, the firm posted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 108 million crowns in the quarter, against expectations for 123 million crowns in a Reuters poll, up from 81 million crowns a year ago.
"Our activity is now lower for a period, as an effect of a market with few contracts to bid for over the last two years," Kvaerner said.
Reporting by Gwladys Fouche
