Aggreko shares dropped this morning after the Scottish temporary power firm revealed a 12% slump in profits last year.
Pre-tax profits at the Glasgow-headquartered firm totalled £195million last year, compared to £221million in 2016, though revenues rose 14% to £1.73billion.
FTSE 250 Index-listed Aggreko delivers power at major events such as Glastonbury music festival, US presidential inaugurations, football World Cups and the Olympic Games.
Shares were down 9.20% to £6.57 in early trading.
Aggreko said its performance had been dented by the re-pricing and off-hire of utility contracts in Argentina.
The contracts were signed in 2008 when market conditions were significantly more favourable, according to Aggreko.
The company said its difficulties in Argentina “masked the underlying improvement in performance across the rest of the business”.
Aggreko managed to reduce its costs by more than £100million and invested £20million in new systems over the past three years.
Chief executive Chris Weston said: “I am pleased that we are seeing revenue growth return, with strong performances in both rental solutions and power solutions industrial.
“As expected, the challenges in power solutions utility held back the group overall.
“Over the last three years we have stabilised the business, enhanced our service offering and positioned ourselves to prosper in rapidly changing energy markets.
“We have delivered over £100million in cost savings, invested in new systems and processes and developed new technology, all of which enables us to provide high quality solutions for customers.
“We expect 2018 group profit before tax to be in line with last year, on a constant currency basis.”
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