Plexus hails progress despite more losses

The oil and gas engineering and service business behind patented technology used by the likes of BP and Shell has reported a further full-year loss but hailed a “transformational” sale during the period.

Plexus Holdings reported a pre-tax loss on continuing operations for the year to 30 June of £5.2 million from £5.3m in the prior year on revenue that increased to £318,000 from £225,000 in the previous year. The basic loss per share from continuing activities came in at 4.45p, up from a 4.06p loss, and the company is continuing its suspensionofdividendpayments.

The business owns the proprietary Pos-grip friction-grip method of wellhead engineering, which was conceived by the firm’s founder and chief executive Ben van Bilderbeek and aims to prevent the type of blowout behind the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster. Plexus said Pos-grip has been used on more than 350 wells worldwide by blue-chip customers such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Spirit Energy and Total.

It added that “major industry recognition” of this technology is evidenced by the “transformational” sale for up to £42.5m of Plexus’ niche jackup business to FMC Technologies, a subsidiary of major oil and gas equipment and services provider Technipfmc. The deal completed in February.

Van Bilderbeek said “looking forward, and in terms of industry recognition”, the sale was without doubt the “standout event of the year”.

It provides Plexus with “a solid platform with which to deliver on our strategy going forward”. He also hailed its “cash-rich balance sheet”. 0 Ben van Bilderbeek is the firm’s founder and CEO