Hallin Marine said yesterday oil and gas producers were continuing to push forward with offshore construction projects and drilling activity remained at a record high.
Tony Ebel, chairman of the Aim-listed provider of subsea and inspection services for the oil and gas industry, said: “We expect that our 10th anniversary later this year will be a celebration of new highs in the group’s performance and we are confident of continued expansion.”
The company said it had experienced strong first-half trading in 2008 in addition to realising a number of important developments to set the foundation for further future growth; notably the acquisition of Aberdeen-based subsea engineering business Prospect Flow Solutions.
Hallin acquired Prospect for an initial £3million, made up of £1.5million in cash and £1.5million in Hallin shares, as reported earlier. Up to a further £1.65million in cash will be payable over the period to the end of 2010 depending on profits.
Hallin said yesterday: “This acquisition brings to fruition our long-standing strategic aim to bring a complementary engineering capability into the group.
“Prospect is a well established and profitable business with the technical subsea oil and gas engineering capabilities that Hallin has been seeking, as well as some interesting niche products.”
With the acquisition of Prospect, which employs 40 in Aberdeen, Derby, Stavanger and Houston, two of Hallin’s four divisions now have their headquarters in the Granite City, already the base for its subsea operations west division. Its subsea operations east and manufacturing divisions are based in Singapore.
Hallin also said yesterday it had won a £5.62million contract to supply saturation-diving support for a pipeline-replacement project off the coast of Mumbai, India, being undertaken for the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. It will provide two of its saturation-diving systems and divers for subsea construction work, deploying its equipment, consumables and personnel on board client-designated vessels.
Hallin reported pre-tax profits of £7.76million yesterday for the six months to June 30, up from £2.23million a year earlier. Revenue for the period was £33.47million compared with £15.58million the year before.
The company also said its forward order book, at £47.2million, was more than double this time last year, and it saw no short-term reduction in demand.