Aggreko shares soar on strong trading update
TEMPORARY power generation firm Aggreko surged to the top of the FTSE 100 yesterday morning, after a strong-third quarter update which showed trading is in line with expectations.
Group revenues and trading margins in the three months to 30 September were slightly ahead of the same period last year, excluding the £37m of revenues from the London Olympics which were factored into the third quarter of 2012. Aggreko expects pre-tax profits for the full year to be in line with market expectations.
Local business revenues rose four per cent in the third quarter, with the Americas performing particularly strongly. But Aggreko said that revenues in its power projects business, which helps deal with temporary crises mainly in emerging markets, were two per cent down on last year.
Revenues in the Asia, Pacific and Australia region fell by 17 per cent, which the firm said was largely due to reduced operations in Japan and Indonesia.
“Aggreko has done well to absorb the loss of income from last year’s London 2012 Olympics and improving figures in both North and South America have gone some way to make up for the collapsing Australian market,” said analysts at IG. “The market’s
reaction will be welcome news to shareholders but still leaves some way to go before recapturing the heady heights of March this year.”
Shares closed up six per cent.