Sales power up at Aggreko as profits cool

Temporary power provider Aggreko yesterday said its annual profits remained on course to come in lower than last year, despite unveiling a rise in first-quarter revenues.

The Glasgow-based group, which warned on earnings last month after flagging a “significant impact” from contracts in Argentina, said reported revenues for the three months to the end of March were up 18 per cent.

At its rental solutions arm, which operates in developed markets serving industries such as oil and gas, petrochemicals, mining and major events including the Commonwealth Games, sales rose 3 per cent on last year.

Although Aggreko said oil and gas revenues in North America had “stabilised” and were higher than the final three months of last year, they remained a third lower than the first quarter of 2016.

Overall, the group said its outlook for 2017 was unchanged, with pre-tax profits before one-off items set to fall behind the figure of £221 million it reported for 2016, but excluding Argentina from the equation it expects to deliver growth and is targeting investment of about £300m in its fleet.

Chief executive Chris Weston said: “I am pleased to see underlying growth in both business units, in particular in power solutions industrial. We continue to execute on our business priorities – investing in technology, improving our customer focus and delivering efficiencies.”

Aggreko was buoyed recently by a deal to help keep the lights on at next year’s Winter Olympics in South Korean. 0 Chris Weston pleased with underlying growth