Petrofac posts a 17% rise in profit

London:

Petrofac posted a 17 per cent rise in profit in 2012 and said it was confident on delivering further growth in its bottom line this year as its pipeline for new energy projects remains strong.

Petrofac, which designs and builds oil and gas infrastructure and also invests alongside oil firms in oil fields, posted full-year net profit of $632 million compared to the $540 million it made in 2011.

In December, Petrofac had guided that profit would be at least 15 per cent higher than in 2011. The company-supplied consensus forecast was for $636 million.

Petrofac said it continued to see a strong pipeline of bidding opportunities in its key markets in the Middle East, Africa and the former Soviet Union, giving it confidence profits will continue to grow.

“We expect to deliver good growth in net profit in 2013 and our strategy underpins long-term earnings growth, including the achievement of our 2015 earnings target,” Chief Executive Ayman Asfari said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company, which also said it was raising its full-year dividend by 17 per cent to 64 cents per share, has a goal to double its recurring 2010 group earnings by 2015.