Dana Gas 2011 Profit Jumps Three-Fold on Higher Output, Prices
February 08, 2012, 1:18 PM ESTBy Ayesha Daya and Arif Sharif
(Updates with cash balance in fourth paragraph.)
Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Dana Gas PJSC, a producer of oil and gas mostly from Egypt and Iraq, said full-year profit grew more than three-fold helped by higher production and prices.
Net income advanced to 506 million dirhams ($138 million) from 158 million dirhams a year ago, the Sharjah, United Arab Emirates-based company said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi bourse today. The mean estimate of seven analysts was for a profit of 524 million dirhams.
Dana Gas shares have dropped 42 percent in the past year on concern it won’t have enough money to repay a $1 billion Islamic bond due in October. The shares erased some of the losses after the company said Jan. 17 it would meet debt obligations and appointed a financial adviser. Dana Gas may restructure the debt, Bank of America Corp. said in a report on Jan. 24, cutting the shares to “underperform.”
The company “continues to balance operating and necessary capital expenditure within the available finance resources,” Dana Gas said in the statement, without providing further information on the sukuk. It had cash and bank balances of 411 million dirhams at the end of last year compared with 583 million a year earlier, it said.
Revenue
Gross revenue increased 42 percent to 2.53 billion dirhams, while net cash generated from operations was 357 million dirhams. The company received 649 million dirhams in payments from Egypt and the Kurdistan region of Iraq last year.
The average production grew 19 percent to 66,200 barrels of oil equivalent a day last year, according to the statement. The increase was mainly due to a rise in output from Kurdistan as the company began production from two liquefied petroleum gas facilities there. The group’s gross proven reserves were 88 million barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2011.
Brent crude, the benchmark for more than half the world’s oil, gained 25 percent to an average of $109.02 a barrel last quarter from a year earlier.
“We are now very focused on receivables collections while preserving our assets for benefit of all stakeholders,” Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Al-Arbeed said in the statement.
--With assistance from Arif Sharif in Dubai. Editors: Shaji Mathew, Claudia Maedler
To contact the reporter on this story: Ayesha Daya in Dubai at adaya1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
