Uncertainties cloud APR Energy outlook

Power rental company APR Energy has reported increase in revenues and fleet capacity for the third quarter, but highlighted uncertainties in its outlook for 2015.

In an interim management statement, the company said revenues for the third quarter totalled US$122 million (€96 million), up 45% year-on-year, while fleet capacity was up 36% to 2189MW. Utilisation stood at 76%, compared to 85% a year ago.

CEO Laurence Anderson said, “Business continues to perform well, reflecting strong financial and operational performance. The group is pleased with the 45% growth in revenue year-on-year and our strong cash position of US$92 million (€72.5 million) at period end.

“We continue to have outstanding success extending contracts, as seen with the renewal of our 60MW contract in Yemen, our 450MW Libya contract extension and a renewal rate exceeding 90% year to date. We continue to see opportunity in our market place, in spite of slowed decision making by customers.”

Mr Anderson added, “While conditions in Libya remain challenging, the group’s Libyan operations continue to run normally and profitably. Our customer continues to make payments in accordance with our contract and together with our risk mitigations in place, we feel comfortable with our continuing operation. Our plants operate at full baseload capacity and the underlying structural electricity deficit in Libya only grows more acute.

“These factors, together with our strong relationship with our customer, give us confidence that our services will continue to be required into the medium term and we maintain our ongoing commitment to providing much needed electricity to the Libyan people.”

Uncertainties

For the full-year, APR Energy said that while it remained confident of year-on-year growth for 2014, it said profit was expected to be at the low end of current year-end expectations.

It said the company’s pipeline of longer-term, larger-scale power projects, in both emerging and developed markets, had never been larger and an ongoing global energy deficit continued.

However, it said that recent hesitancy among prospective customers to make decisions, which may be attributable to escalating geopolitical and global economic uncertainty, was clouding its outlook. It said these “challenging external factors” may impact growth in 2015, resulting in modest year-on-year revenue and earnings progression.

Nevertheless, with the need for power globally as acute as ever, APR Energy said it was confident that its growth profile should continue. “Indeed, at some point when customers are no longer able to continue to defer decisions, it could result in a strong demand for the group’s services,” it added.