Weir Group PLC on Wednesday reported a 41% fall in pretax profit for the first half of the year due mainly to weaker demand in the oil business from lower prices and the decision by Saudi Arabia and Russia to end their production agreement.
The FTSE 250-listed engineering company added that guidance remains withdrawn while Covid-19 uncertainty remains. It withdrew guidance in March due to the uncertainty in its markets from the pandemic.
Pretax profit for the half year ended June 30 was 62.5 million pounds ($80.8 million), compared with GBP105.7 million a year earlier, on revenue that fell to GBP1.1 billion, from GBP1.33 billion.
Adjusted pretax profit–one of the company’s preferred metrics which strips out exceptional and other one-off items–fell to GBP108.1 million, from GBP147.2 million.
Orders during the period fell to GBP1.14 billion, from GBP1.41 billion. In April the company said that orders for the first quarter were down due mainly to a fall in the oil and gas market, and that it expected a greater hit during the second half due to the pandemic.
No interim dividend has been declared. The company withdrew its planned 30.45 pence a share 2019 final dividend in March in order to provide “maximum flexibility” during the crisis.
Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com
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