Aggreko expects fourth-quarter group revenue to increase 48 percent compared with the same period last year, the company said in a trading statement last week. Excluding fuel and in constant currency, growth will be about 28 percent. International power projects revenue will rise about 51 percent, the company said, with local business jumping about 18 percent.
“North America has held up more strongly than we expected, as revenues from storms have persisted into the fourth quarter, and we have had a particularly strong performance from our cooling tower business,” the company said. “In the first few months following the acquisition of Power Plus in Canada, the new business has performed ahead of plan. In Europe, revenues in the fourth quarter have run at similar levels to the prior year. Elsewhere in the local business, revenues in the fourth quarter have been well ahead of the prior year in the Middle East, Australia, and in Central & South America.
Aggreko expects a slowdown in Europe and North America business in the first half of 2009, although it predicts that international power projects will offset the slowdown.
The company expects to continue strong fleet capex spending. “In March 2008, we gave a strategy update in which we indicated that we planned to spend an average of £200m a year (almost U.S. $300 million) on fleet capex between 2008 and 2012,” the statement said. “In 2008, we will spend about £260m, and our current plan is to invest around £170m in 2009, a level similar to 2007. However, our ability to adjust capital spending rapidly is an important feature of our business model, and we will manage the rate of fleet investment through the course of the year in the light of demand.”
Preliminary results will be announced on March 5, 2009.
Aggreko is based in Scotland. With U.S. headquarters in Houston, Aggreko North America is No. 13 on the RER 100.
