Keppel O&M Profit Slips

Keppel Offshore & Marine has seen third quarter earnings cut by a fall in orders.

The company continued the trend seen in the first half of the year, reporting a drop in pre-tax profit of around 12.5% to $317m compared to the same period of 2012.

Revenue fell by just short of a third to $1.53bn due to lower volume of work

Keppel O&M is a unit of Singapore-listed Keppel Corp, a conglomerate which also runs property and infrastructure divisions.

Those business segments offset the drop in earnings at O&M to see Keppel Corp post a 32% rise in net profit for the period of $458m.

Keppel O&M owns 20 yards worldwide covering rigbuiling through Keppel FELS and FPSO and FLNG conversions at Keppel Shipyard.

It also operates specialised shipbuilding division Keppel Singmarine.

The company secured $5bn in fresh orders during the first three quarters and has a total orderbook worth $13.6bn with work stretching through 2019.