SINGAPORE (Feb 23): CSE Global reported a net loss of $37.3 million in 4Q17 which came of the back of revenue of $116.7 million in a difficult business and operating environment.
For the FY17 ended Dec 31 2017, the group recorded a net loss of $45.1 million revenue on the back of $362.4 million in revenue.
For FY17, revenue increased by 14% year-on-year as compared to FY16 due to higher revenues generated in the Americas and Asia Pacific regions. Gross margins, however, were lower at 26% in FY17 as compared to 31.7% in FY16, arising from increased sales generated at lower margins in oil and gas projects.
Operating expenses were 21.6% higher at $89.6 million in FY17 compared to FY16. The operating expenses in FY17 included a one-off impairment of receivables amounting to $11.7 million. On a normalised basis, operating expenses in FY17 would have slightly increased by 5.7% year-on-year to $77.9 million.
During 4Q17, the group booked certain one-off impairments on its financial assets. Taking into account these one-off impairments made in 4Q17 as well as the one-off settlement costs recorded in 2Q17, the group recognised exceptional items totalling $58.5 million for FY17.
Excluding the impact from the exceptional items, core profit after tax and non-controlling interests would have been $13.3 million in FY17 compared to $21.2 million in FY16.
The group recorded a loss per ordinary share of 8.75 cents in FY17 as compared to the basic earnings per ordinary share in FY16 of 4.11 cents.
New orders received for FY17 grew by 33.2% to $381.9 million, mainly from higher large greenfield projects in the Gulf of Mexico secured in March 2017 as well as higher flow orders from new installations and brownfield (maintenance, upgrade and enhancement of existing installations) in Americas and Australia.
In its outlook, CSE says current oil & gas and commodity prices continue to influence investment decisions as customers remain highly focused on cost control and cash flow generation.
With an outlook of the higher flow of orders, the group expects a much better performance in FY18 although it will still focus on cost control and consolidating the acquisitions made in FY16 and FY17.
Shares in CSE Global closed 2 cents at 34 cents on Friday.
