Braemer Shipping works against adverse market conditions

Braemer Shipping, a provider of technical expertise and professional marine and energy services, plans to restructure the business after reporting a poor performance during the first half due to harsh market conditions.

The group’s revenue fell in the six months ending 31 August 2016 to £70.2m from £79.6m in 2015. Underlying operating profit also fell to £1.4m from £7.1m in 2015 after charging one-off restructuring costs of £1.8m.

Underlying basic earnings per share (EPS) fell to 3.9p from 18.6p in 2015. Interim dividend remains unchanged at 9p per share.

The company’s cash position improved with net cash at £0.7m at 31 August 2016 compared to the net debt of £3.1m recorded in the previous period.

The shipbroking division achieved “a resilient performance in volatile conditions” with transaction volumes improving.

The technical division suffered from reductions in industry wide activity especially in oil and gas exploration. The group is currently changing management and restructuring the business in order to realign the division to current market conditions.

The logistics division has won a number of “significant” new contracts which are starting to contribute to the company.

A restructuring programme began during the period and has led to over £3m of annualised cost savings.

Chairman David Moorhouse said: "Braemar's divisions have worked hard in the challenging markets that we face and our senior management teams are taking difficult actions where needed to restructure our businesses to address this economic climate."

Looking ahead Moorhouse said:"The board is confident in our long term strategy to grow the business through both organic and acquisitive business development. The board expects the underlying financial performance, excluding restructuring costs of the group, for the full year to be in line with current market expectations following the actions we are taking to make structural changes within the group."

The share price rose 0.89% at 325.11p at 1038 BST on Tuesday.