By Stephen Jewkes
MILAN, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Italian energy providers group Saipem stated it was unable to offer steering for the year as a consequence of the ongoing health pandemic after it missed earnings expectations, sending its shares down round 9%.
“2021 is certainly not a again to normal 12 months,” Chief Executive Stefano Cao mentioned in a convention name on results.
“We don’t anticipate any improvement within the outlook earlier than the second half of the 12 months,” he said.
Global lockdowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have throttled demand for oil and fuel, prompting oil majors to slash funding and defer initiatives to conserve cash.
Saipem, whose order backlog contains 90% oil and gas, posted a internet loss in the fourth quarter of a hundred and twenty million euros ($146 million), beneath a Refinitiv forecast for a loss of 52 million euros.
For the yr it swung to a net loss of 1.136 billion euros in 2020 after a sequence of writedowns, including on drilling property, from a 12 million euro profit a yr earlier.
It said ranges of exercise this yr would be fully impacted by fallout from the pandemic which would weigh on margins but added adjusted core earnings can be in line with final yr thanks to a sizeable order backlog.
New orders final 12 months fell 50% on the yr to 8.7 billion euros however the order backlog improved barely to 22.Four billion euros.
“The main focus right this moment, and a destructive driver, …will likely be >20% downgrade potential for 2021 EBITDA attributable to preliminary guidance for ‘a stage just like 2020′”, broker Jefferies mentioned.
At 1104 GMT Saipem shares had been down 8.7%.
A market chief in subsea exploration and development, Saipem is looking to develop new traces of business to meet an increasing consumer give attention to inexperienced technologies, together with offshore wind, carbon capture and hydrogen.
Some analysts are concerned margins on new inexperienced companies may very well be lower than its traditional oil and gasoline engineering companies.
Saipem, jointly controlled by oil major Eni and state lender CDP, mentioned it was dedicated to reducing greenhouse fuel emissions by 50% by 2035 for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
Scope 1 refers to emissions from a company’s direct operations, such as a diesel generator (related web site) on an offshore platform, and Scope 2 are emissions from the power a company uses for its operations, power generator diesel generator set comparable to fuel-powered electricity purchased.
Saipem said it aimed to be carbon web zero in 2025 for Scope 2 emissions.
($1 = 0.
