Aggreko positioned for 'strong second half'

Aggreko said both its international power projects and local business divisions delivered good growth in the first half of the year, with revenues up 21% after excluding the impact of one-off major events in the same period in 2010.

Sales in North America were up 27% and the international projects business by 24%, both on an underlying basis, excluding the impact of events such as the Vancouver Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup and Asian Games. The European and Middle East local business saw underlying growth of 7.9%, although trading profits here were down 27%.

Underlying trading profits overall were up 17.1%, although include the major events and the half-year period saw trading profits fall by 3.1% to a still very healthy £127.1 million.

Rupert Soames, Aggreko's chief executive, said; "We generated nearly £50 million of revenue from one-off sporting events in the first half of 2010, and consequently the headline numbers in 2011 were always going to make tough comparators.

"However, the underlying rate of growth in revenues is running at over 20%, and it is also encouraging to note that this growth is being delivered by both the Local business and International Power Projects. We are now well placed to deliver a strong second half."

The company's are performing least well. However, Aggreko said it expected its local businesses in Europe and the Middle East to have a much better second half year, with recent contract wins in Cyprus, Russia and Iraq.

Philip Rogerson, Chairman, said that although prospects for the global economy in the months ahead were uncertain, Aggreko expected profit before tax for the year will be higher than indicated at the end of June; "we now expect it to be around £315 million. This would equate to a rate of growth in underlying profits of around 24%."