21 January 2014, News Wires – US services giant Halliburton has seen its annual net income fall by 19% year-on-year in 2013 as a $1 billion contingency for the Macondo disaster swallowed much of the company’s earnings.
The Houston-headquartered company booked $2.13 billion in net income for the year, down from the $2.64 billion earned in 2012.
Annual revenues rose 3% over 2012 for Halliburton to $29.4 billion for the full year.
For the fourth quarter, Halliburton raised net income to $795 million from the year-ago period’s $672 million on revenues of $7.63 billion.
While overall annual revenues rose, operating incomes tumbled by a quarter compared to 2012, mainly due to a $1 billion pre-tax charge for an estimated loss contingency for Macondo as well as pricing pressure in North America.
Chief executive Dave Lesar highlighted the operational performance behind the figures, which he said had seen record annual revenues as well as “revenue records in every international region and in both divisions”.
“From an operating income perspective, we achieved record operating income in our Middle East/Asia region as well as six of our 13 product lines,” Lesar said.
Lesar also vowed to improve margins in North America, where revenues slipped in the fourth quarter, and admitted Latin America remained “a challenging market” with a flat result for the last three months of 2013.
Equity research firm Cowen and Company said that Halliburton’s reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.93 for the fourth quarter had beaten its $0.90 estimate and the consensus forecast of $0.89, but cautioned it excluded $0.03 after-tax worth of restructuring charges.
The New York-based researchers said that lower tax rates had added $0.05 to EPS and lower corporate expenses another $0.01 after adjustments, partially offset by weaker than anticipated results in the Europe/Africa/CIS region.
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