Shares in oil services giant Wood Group climbed yesterday as it confirmed it was on track to surpass its 2013 financial performance.
The north-east-based firm said that it was performing in line with management expectations and was on track to beat the $412.8 million pre-tax profit it generated last year.
A full-year trading update will be released by the company in December, but analysts expect pre-tax profits for the full year to come in at around $431m, with revenues increasing to around $7.5 billion.
The firm which employs around 45,000 staff directly and through joint-venture operations, and has a presence in more than 50 countries said its performance had been boosted by trading in its PSN production services division, which continues to benefit from its US shale gas operations and “robust” North Sea orders.
The company said its engineering division had partially offset a “lower contribution” from upstream work by a good performance from its subsea and pipelines and downstream operations.
However, Wood said while “significant improvement” was expected in the second half in its turbine activities arm, earnings from the division were still expected to be lower this year than in 2013.
Shares in Wood Group closed up 13.50p at 692p.