Engineering service firm Amec yesterday highlighted a west-of-Shetland contract as key to meeting its order book targets.
In an operations update, chief executive Samir Brikho said the group’s performance was in line with expectations amid good growth in its markets, particularly in the oil and gas sector.
Amec’s £68million deal last month to deliver services for the two new Clair Ridge platforms for BP helped push the firm’s order book up to £3.7billion.
Around 800 technical experts at Amec and its qedi subsidiary will work on the platforms, which are due to be installed in 2015.
Mr Brikho said: “Acquisitions made in 2012 are integrating well and the pipeline of further acquisition opportunities remains good.
“We remain on track to achieve our targeted earnings per share of greater than 100 pence ahead of 2015.”
He said the outlook for this year was unchanged, with the firm expecting low-to-mid single-digit revenue growth and a gradual improvement in profit margins.
Stuart Lamont, of investment manager and financial-planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, said Amec’s share price had only partly recovered from disappointment over a cautious growth outlook from the firm earlier this year.
He added: “Investors are still coming to terms with the change in organisational structure from market-based reporting to regional-based reporting.”
The changes were designed to lead to more collaboration between Amec’s various businesses and, in turn, stimulate sales.
Mr Lamont added: “The slowdown in top-line growth has been a disappointing aspect of Amec’s Vision 2015 plan, despite the likelihood of the company making its 100p-per-share earnings target one year early.
“That said, the shares have outperformed the wider oil service sector by some 8% since the beginning of the year.”
He said Amec continued to generate impressive levels of cash flow and, since the end of a share buyback programme, the feeling among investors was that acquisitions were now back on the agenda.