Bourbon CEO sees offshore service market upswing ahead

Christian Lefèvre, CEO of Paris headquartered offshore services giant Bourbon SA (GBB) says the industry has “arrived at the end of a downturn that has lasted since late 2008, and the market for modern offshore vessels is now turning around.”

Bourbon today reported first half 2011financial results that were heavily impacted by the weakness of the dollar against the euro.

The net loss was 21.4 million euros ($30.9 million) compared with a revised profit of 41 million euros for the same period a year earlier.

Revenues for the period amount to 482.7 million euros, up 18.8 percent over the first half of the previous year, owing mainly to the strong growth of shallow water offshore, as well as the good performance of the Subsea Services Activity.

Compared with the second half of 2010, revenues were up 8.8 percent. This growth comes mainly from the Shallow water offshore segment, which is seeing both an increase in utilization rates and a steadily increasing number of vessels.

Gross operating income (EBITDA) for the period amounts to 142.1 million euros, which is up 16.6 percent compared with the first half of the previous year, very close to the revenue growth rate. Compared with the second half of 2010, EBITDA is up 19.3 percent.

“We have arrived at the end of a downturn that has lasted since late 2008, and the market for modern offshore vessels is now turning around. Bourbon has every chance of being the first to benefit from this new turn of events thanks to a high-performance modern fleet and a worldwide network. Bourbon’s operating income for the period is up 19.9 percent over the first half of the previous year and 145 percent over the previous six-month period. Net income is affected by the sharp fall in the dollar (down 11 cents) over the period. Utilization rates of the industry’s modern vessels are gradually increasing as a prelude to the improvement in average daily rates we are expecting by year-end 2011 and in 2012,” said CEO Christian Lefèvre. “In this context of recovery, which is starting to be reflected in our operating figures, Bourbon is actively moving ahead with its Bourbon 2015 Leadership strategic plan.”

In a conference call, Mr.Lefèvre said that the “heavy and negative” impact of the weaker dollar on the company’s results came from the fact that about 70 percent of its revenue is in the U.S. currency while 70 percent of costs are in euros.

See the full results HERE

August 31, 2011