Results round-up
By Alexander Bueso
Date: Thursday 16 Aug 2018
(Sharecast News) - Drilling services specialist Capital Drilling turned in "another strong half-yearly result" on Thursday, as the company boasted about its financial performance and the execution of its strategy across the last six months.
Capital Drilling saw revenues drop 4.6% to $54.5m due to a lower fleet utilisation as the group began relocating its assets to West Africa; however, the contractor's EBITDA improved 7.8% to $12.5m thanks to a stronger margin of 22.9%.
Net profits rose 7.7% to $2.8m while earnings per share increased 5% to $0.02 each.
The company said in a statement that capital spending had increased 11% to $4.7m in the first-half as a result of the purchase of replacement rigs and investments made in improving its assets.
The firm closed out the period with net cash of $3.4m on hand.
Capital Drilling scored seven contracts in the first half, locking in work for fifteen of its rigs, yet rig utilisation fell to 46% from 56%, on an average fleet size of 94.
Jamie Boyton, Capital Drilling's executive chairman, said, "The building of our business in West Africa has been the major focus of our growth strategy over the past 6 months."
"The group has developed new operational centres in Côte d'Ivoire and Mali over the period, complementing our long-established operations in Mauritania, all of which provide the infrastructure to deploy further production and exploration rigs into what is regarded as one of the fastest growing drilling markets in the industry," added Boyton.
East Africa-focused gold producer Shanta Gold swung to a profit in the first half of its trading year as the group began to reap the rewards of its stringent cost savings initiatives.
Shanta profits for the six months ended 30 June came in at $7.1m, a marked turnaround from the $2.1m loss turned in by the group a year earlier.
EBITDA grew 7% to $23m despite revenues dipping 4.74% to $50.2m.
The AIM-listed firm managed to cut its net debt by 3.5% throughout the half to $38.1m; however, Shanta's cash pile shrank 34.5% to $8.9m.
Despite seeing gold production fall 4.66% year-on-year to 38,207 ounces, Shanta reiterated its full-year guidance of 82,000 to 88,000 ounces of gold.
Shanta achieved roughly $7.2m of recurring cost reductions, improving its cost base by approximately $85 per ounce in less than twelve months and also managed to reduce cash costs 11% to $505 per ounce in the second quarter.
Eric Zurrin, Shanta's chief executive, said, "I'm delighted to report a profit after tax for the period of $7.1m in today's H1 2018 results. In the same period last year, we recorded a loss after tax of $2.1 m, showing the positive impact that our stringent cost focus strategy is having on the company for its shareholders."
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