Noble Corp. Q2 Profit Up 11% On Higher Revenue, Lower Downtime

(RTTNews) - Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corp. (NE) on Wednesday reported an 11 percent increase in profit for the second quarter on higher revenues and lower operational downtime. Looking ahead, the company said it working through the steps required to potentially spin off a portion of its fleet.

The Switzerland-based company's contract drilling services revenues for the quarter rose 15 percent to $975.46 million, reflecting improved fleet utilization and higher average dayrates.

Total average rig utilization for the quarter rose to 83 percent from 76 percent in the prior-year period, while average dayrate increased 3 percent from the year-ago quarter to $187,537. Contract drilling margin for the quarter was 49.6 percent.

David Williams, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Noble Corp. said, "…we experienced another quarter of declining unpaid operational downtime, contributing to lower than expected repair and maintenance expenses and increased bonus revenue in the quarter."

Noble's second-quarter net income attributable to the company increased to $176.62 million or $0.69 per share from $159.82 million or $0.63 per share in the prior-year quarter.

The latest quarter's results included $18 million, or $0.06 per share of revenue recognized relating to the previously reported cancellation of a contract by the customer for the newbuild jackup Noble Houston Colbert.

Excluding the impact of the contract cancellation, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.63 per share. On average, 37 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.57 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Operating revenues for the quarter grew 13 percent to $1.02 billion from $0.90 billion in the same period last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.01 billion.

Total contract backlog as at June 30, 2013 was about $16.0 billion, compared to $14.0 billion at March 31, 2013.

Looking ahead, Williams said, "We continue to work through the complicated steps required to potentially spin off a portion of our fleet in what would be a significant transformative event for Noble, and we have initiated a process that we believe will provide increased corporate, managerial and operational benefits and enhanced global competitiveness by seeking to move our corporate domicile to the UK. I believe all of these actions have the potential to drive improvements in operating results and greater shareholder value in the future."

NE closed Wednesday's trading at $40.01, up $0.46 or 1.16 percent on a volume of 2.91 million shares. In after-hours, the stock further gained $0.99 or 2.47 percent to $41.00.