SCOTTISH engineering company Weir Group has issued its first profits warning since Keith Cochrane became chief executive in November 2009 - triggering a £177 million fall in its stock market worth.
Weir shares finished 83p lower at £21.73 yesterday, reducing the company's stock market worth from £4.81 billion to £4.63bn. But the closing share price was well above session lows, signalling a willingness by the City to look beyond the warning on full-year profits at the longer-term picture.
Weir said underlying pre-tax profits for the 53 weeks to January 3, before amortisation and exceptional items, were expected to be in the range of £413 million to £427m. The City forecast had, before yesterday, been that Weir would make underlying pre-tax profits of about £446m.
Mr Cochrane cited the impact on profits of delays to major new projects in the mining sector, some of which could move into next year.
He also highlighted an unexpected fall in rig count in the US oil and gas sector in the third quarter. But he remained confident about acquisitions and investment by Weir aimed at capitalising on opportunities in the North American shale arena.
Excluding negative currency movements which Weir estimated would depress reported profits by between £8m and £12m, the company noted its anticipated underlying full-year profits before tax would be in the range of £425m to £435m.
Asked if yesterday's profit warning was the first to be issued by Weir under his leadership, Mr Cochrane replied: "We did give a range of guidance last year but yes, probably it is, if that is what you call it."
Mr Cochrane, who was finance director at Weir for more than three years before succeeding Mark Selway in the top job, said: "Clearly in my time at Weir, we have been through some challenging market conditions and numbers have moved about."
Weir shares were trading at around 700p when Mr Cochrane became chief executive.
Glasgow-based Weir reported that its third-quarter order input was up 5% on the same period of last year on a like-for-like basis.
But it warned that third-quarter revenues and profits were "slightly below expectations" because of further project delivery delays in its minerals division and a more gradual-than-anticipated recovery in upstream oil and gas markets.
Mr Cochrane noted the depressing impact of the recent strengthening of the pound against the dollar on reported profits. However, he flagged a beneficial impact for Weir in terms of its dollar-denominated debt.
And he cited improving trends in new orders from the mining sector.
Updating the City on the performance of its minerals division, which provides original equipment and after-market support to the global mining sector, Weir said: "Mining end markets remained challenging, with commodity prices broadly flat over the period.
"Greenfield activity remained at a low level, with new projects experiencing order delays as customers continue to adopt a cautious approach to large investments."
It added: "Full-year revenues are now expected to be broadly flat year-on-year, and slightly lower than our expectations in July, due to further project delivery delays and industrial unrest in South Africa."
Weir said it expected second-half profit margins in minerals to be "in line with the strong performance of the first half".
Referring to its oil and gas-focused division, Weir said: "Upstream markets expanded more gradually than anticipated, with US rig count actually declining over the third quarter, and the number of wells drilled and completed in line with the second quarter despite oil prices remaining supportive of high activity levels. US gas prices remained below incentive levels. This impacted pressure-pumping and pressure-control orders."
However, Mr Cochrane declared: "We still believe in the opportunities that are likely to arrive from the development of North American gas resources and indeed, more generally, internationalisation of shale (activity)."
Weir flagged challenging conditions in the hydro-power market.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Weir's broker, said the company had reported solid orders, particularly in the context of its peers, but noted sales and profits were below expectations.
Weir has a global workforce of about 15,000, including about 600 employees in Scotland.
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