Hunting: Oil and gas services firm’s profit more than doubles
Oil and gas equipment provider Hunting has reported a more than doubling in profit for the first half of 2024 as its order book hit a record level.
The FTSE 250 firm said on Thursday that it achieved a pretax profit of $36.2m (£27.4m) over the six months, up from $15.7m (£11.9m) during the same period last year.
Its sales order book swelled 32 per cent to $699.5m (£529.3m), from $529.7m (£400.8m). The increase was driven by $231m (£174.8m) worth of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) orders from the state-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC).
Hunting’s revenue ticked up three per cent to $493.8m (£373.7m).
The company has been a major beneficiary of energy giants’ return to oil and gas, with its stock price surging 41 per cent so far this year as energy giants return to oil and gas.
“Over the period, there were strong performances from our OCTG, subsea and advanced manufacturing product groups,” said Jim Johnson, Hunting’s chief executive.
“While our perforating systems results have been impacted by the challenging onshore market in the US, Hunting’s technology offering remains compelling for clients, and will see improvements as and when market conditions recover.”
It added that management still saw “strong international and offshore demand” due to the current price for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, also identifying “longer-term growth opportunities” in Africa following oil and gas discoveries in Namibia and Mozambique.
Hunting also reported “steady progress in energy transition markets”, with orders for geothermal projects in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.
The firm stuck to its guidance for earnings before tax (EBITDA), which it raised in July to between roughly $134m (£101m) and $138m (£102m) on the back of KOC’s orders.
Hunting said it would continue to work through these orders in the first half of 2025, supporting a “positive outlook” for trading well into next year.
“In summary, the board remains comfortable with current market consensus with the overall outlook positive given the activity levels across multiple regions and product groups and the diversity of Hunting’s portfolio,” the company said.