Cape plc, the international provider of essential, non-mechanical support services to the energy and mineral resources sectors, provided the following scheduled trading update following the financial year end on 31 December 2011.
Since the Group’s Interim Management Statement on 9 November 2011, Cape has performed well and Group revenue and underlying profit before tax for the year are anticipated to be in line with the Board’s expectations.
As expected, the strong revenue growth in Q3 continued in Q4 driven by higher levels of activity in three of Cape’s four regions. In the Far East/Pacific Rim region, Cape saw increased activity from both onshore project work, in particular Woodside’s Pluto LNG project in Australia and the Exxon SPT Olefins project in Singapore, as well as offshore work in Australia with mobilisation at both Kipper Tuna Turrum (off Victoria) and North Rankin (North West Shelf). The UK business experienced higher levels of activity across the power belt with several increased outage scopes and finally, in North Africa we began mobilisation of significant manpower on the Sonatrach GL3-Z LNG project in Algeria.In the Gulf/Middle East region, activity levels were in line with our expectations following delayed release of works.
The Group has also executed on its plans, as referred to in the IMS, to take one-off, non-recurring charges related to a UK contract, now completed, and the exit of commercial construction scaffold hire and sales activities in Queensland, Australia.
Looking ahead, the increase in activity levels seen during Q4 2011 with the commencement of works noted above, gives the Board confidence that 2012 will be a year of significant growth in activity. Over half of Cape’s revenues continue to be driven by essential maintenance requirements and regulatory commitments.
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LNG World News Staff, January 12, 2012