SINGAPORE (Jan 28): Keppel Corp, once the world’s largest jack-up rig builder, has still not recovered from the offshore and marine slump. Its O&M division continued to make a loss last year. For FY2018, Keppel Corp announced a net profit of $944 million, up 382% from $196 million in 2017, or up 16% from $815 million, excluding the one-off penalty of $619 million for global resolution with the authorities in the US, Brazil and Singapore. Property was the biggest earnings contributor for the fourth consecutive year. Keppel O&M incurred a small loss of $6 million for FY2018, because of $167 million additional provision for losses on semi-subs for Sete Brasil and $32 million impairments on other assets in 4QFY2018.
Capex cuts by the oil majors, coupled with the write-downs from Sete Brasil, continued to impact Keppel O&M’s profitability. Keppel O&M’s profit before tax has been falling since late 2014 (see Chart 1).
