Austria's Schoeller-Bleckmann upbeat on 2019 after returning to profit (updated)

SBO AG

19/03/2019 12:29

* 2018 net profit at 41.4 mln euros after 2017 loss
    * Company proposes to double dividend to 1.0 euro per share
    * Plants to close in Britain and Mexico
    * Shares climb 7 percent

 (Recasts)
    VIENNA, March 19 (Reuters) - Oilfield equipment producer
Schoeller-Bleckmann  SBOE.VI  said it expected to stay
profitable in 2019, banking on stable demand for its drilling
motors and circulation tools in North America and high backlog
demand in Russia and other regions.
    The Austrian company reported its first net profit in four
years and proposed to double dividend payments to 1 euro 
($1.14) per share on Tuesday, lifting its stock 7 percent to its
highest this year. 
    Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment (SBO) has emerged
from a rough patch, triggered by plunging oil prices more than
three years ago. Prices have been recovering since then,
prompting producers to invest in new projects.       
    SBO gets its orders for highly specialised oilfield
exploration equipment, such as odd-angle drilling and fracking
gear, from a range of energy companies. Rising exploration
activity in the United States and Canada helped it last year.
    To save money and make more efficient use of machinery, SBO
was closing two sites in Britain and Mexico and relocated much
of that capacity to Vietnam, and some to sites in Austria and
the United States, the group said.
    The plant closure in Britain was due to an efficiency drive
and not related to Britain's departure from the European Union,
Chief Executive Gerald Grohmann told a news conference in
Vienna. 
    He said SBO had invested in Chesterfield in England and
Monterrey in Mexico in recent years but demand at other
locations, particularly Vietnam, was much stronger, he said. 
     SBO's order backlog stood at 97.7 million euros by end of
December compared to 37.6 million euros the previous year. 
    Net profit for 2018 came in at 41.4 million euros after a
loss of 54.4 million in 2017. The group expects to stay
profitable in 2019, a spokesman said without elaborating.
    "While the North American business should at least show
stability based on the activity figures at the beginning of the
year, international business is expected to continue its growth
trend," SBO said in its annual report.

    ($1 = 0.8807 euros)

 (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle
Additional reporting by Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich
Editing by Riham Alkousaa and Edmund Blair)
 ((kirsti.knolle@thomsonreuters.com; +43 1 53112 255; Reuters
Messaging: kirsti.knolle.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net    
www.reuters.com))