Foster Wheeler posts depressed first quarter

Global engineering and construction company Foster Wheeler has reported a year-on-year drop in net income of US$ 27.6 million, as it filed a first quarter net income of US$ 13 million, compared with US$ 40.6 million in the first quarter of 2012.

Foster Wheeler attributed the drop to mark-to-market losses on currency transactions and a non-cash impairment charge relating to the Camden, New Jersey, waste-to-energy facility.

Foster Wheeler’s chief executive officer, Kent Masters, said, “Our net income was below the average quarter of 2012 due in part to the unfavourable impact of the mark-to-market losses and the impairment charge cited above. Further, as expected, both of our business groups generated lower EBITDA in the first quarter of 2013 than in the average quarter of 2012. However, we do not view first-quarter 2013 earnings per share or EBITDA as a run rate for the remainder of the year.”

Consolidated revenues for the firm held steady with Q1, 2013 recording US$ 630 million against Q1, 2012’s US$ 625 million.

Foster Wheeler’s Global Engineering and Construction (E&C) Group reported new orders booked worth US$ 336 million for the first quarter of the year, slightly down on 2012 figures of US$ 371 million. Operating revenue for the Group saw growth, achieving US$ 425 million, compared with US$ 365 million in the same period in 2012.

Looking ahead, Masters predicts that earnings for the full year 2012 will remain flat to moderately below 2012’s figures. Commenting on the company’s Global E&C Group, Masters said, “We continue to expect scope revenues in 2013 to be up materially as compared with 2012, and we expect the full-year 2013 EBITDA margin on scope revenues in this business to be in the range of 10% to 12%.”