Irish-Malaysian engineering group Kentz said it is “comfortable” with analysts’ estimates for revenue of around $700 million this year.
“For most of our clients, if not all, their capital spend projects are pretty much intact,” chief executive Hugh O’Donnell said today.
The company today reported a 18.7 per cent increase in pretax profits to $40.7 million (€30.8m) and said its cash balances increased almost 25 per cent to $154.4 million.
Co Tipperary-based Kentz designs and supplies control systems under contract for oil and gas refining and the production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Earnings per share, basic and diluted, came to $0.25, a gain of 10 per cent and the company is proposing a final dividend of 3.8 cents per share. This dividend is roughly two-thirds of the level of 2008 and is due to be paid in June.
Kentz said it had a backlog of $1 billion as of the end of January and had new orders worth $200 million.
Large orders in Qatar and South Africa, which make up around half of its current $1 billion backlog and give the company “good visibility” into 2011, Mr O’Donnell said.
The AIM-listed company floated on February 5th, raising £66.7 million.
The company concentrates on oil, gas and petrochemical projects in developing regions and said the increase in exploration and development spending by energy companies had been positive.
Kentz said it was “reasonably” well-insulated against the downturn in petrol prices as its main market, the Middle East, has relatively low production costs.
It said while some projects had been delayed, very few had been cancelled and that the long-term demand for oil and gas was very positive.
Mr O’Donnell said management viewed the outlook for the company as “positive” and said that the “recent fall in the cost of raw materials should mean that there is more appetite for downstream oil and gas developments as well as the replenishment and modernisation of existing projects”.
Chairman Tan Sri Mohd Razali Abdul Rahman said the strategy for dealing with the downturn was to seek additional resources to further growth in its “upstream oil and gas market” and to seek out new opportunities.
At 11am shares in Kentz were up 6 pern cent at 122.5 pence giving the company a market cap of £142.5 million. It has lost 17 per cent of its value over the last 12 months.