2012 Performance in line with expectations
Earnings per share to grow by at least 15%
Overview
Aggreko plc, the world leader in the provision of temporary power and temperature control solutions, is today issuing the following trading update for the year ending 31st December 2012.
Trading
Reported Group revenues for the year are expected to be in the region of £1.6 billion (up 13%), and profit before tax and amortisation is expected to be around £365 million (up 12%), which is in line with previous guidance; earnings per share are expected to grow by at least 15%. On an underlying basis(1) we expect that Group revenues for 2012 will be around 13% higher than the prior year and trading profits around 7% higher.
Underlying revenues in our International Power Projects business, which exclude pass-through fuel and foreign exchange movements, are expected to grow by about 12% in the fourth quarter, with growth for the year as a whole expected to be around 15%. Underlying trading margins in International Power Projects for the year are expected to be about 34%, which is lower than last year principally due to increased bad debt provisions and mobilisation costs on our Mozambique contract. Although all the customers against whose accounts we have taken bad debt provisions have made substantial payments during the second half we continue to expect bad debt provisions to be around $85 million by the year end. Order intake in the fourth quarter has been stronger than in the third quarter, with around 220 MW of new contracts signed to date; major orders include 100 MW in Cote d'Ivoire and 74 MW in Japan. We anticipate that order intake for the year will be over 1,000 MW and we expect to close out the year with around 10% more capacity on-hire than at the end of 2011.
Reported results for the year in the Local business are likely to show revenues around 24% higher and margins up 2 percentage points to 19%. We expect underlying revenues, which excludes the benefit of the London 2012 Olympics contract and the Poit acquisition as well as adjusting for foreign exchange movements, to be around 8% higher in the fourth quarter than in 2011, with growth for the year as a whole expected to be around 12%. Europe and Middle East underlying revenues for the year are expected to be up around 5%, North America up by around 15%, and Aggreko International's Local business up by around 19%. Underlying trading margins for the year as a whole are expected to be slightly higher than the prior year.
