French and Benelux stocks: Factors to watch
Here are some company news and stories that could impact the markets in France and Benelux or even individual stocks. TotalEnergies French oil giant Total Energies has sold half of its shares in the UK's West Burton Energy Gas Power Plant to Epuki. Vallourec French steel tube maker Vallourec has announced that it will sell a significant majority of the production facility in Dusseldorf-Rath to CTP, for 155 millions euros. The transaction should close by the end of 2024. EssilorLuxottica Ray-Ban manufacturer EssilorLuxottica announced that it had signed an agreement with Italy's Espansione Group to purchase the company.
After cutting debt, Vallourec pays first dividend after 10 years
French steel tube maker Vallourec announced on Friday that it will pay its first dividend for 10 years, after further reducing its debt and completing its financial restructuring plan. However, the group's shares fell 3% at 0805 GMT after it reported a decline in its third quarter earnings. The group's net debt was 240 million euros (253.42 millions) on Sept. 30. This is down from 1.49 billion euro two years earlier. It confirmed that it would reach zero net by 2025. He said that this will be a regular return for investors. In the last three year, Vallourec has implemented a financial reorganization plan with its principal creditors.
Major Salzgitter shareholder mulls takeover bid
Salzgitter announced on Monday that its second-largest shareholder GP Gunter Papenburg is considering a possible takeover of the German Steelmaker with a partner. The offer is only valid if TSR Recycling and the two-party consortium reach a minimum of 45% of Salzgitter plus one share. Salzgitter has not disclosed the price of its offer. The news caused the shares of the Frankfurt-listed company to rise by nearly 26% as early as 1854 GMT. GP Gunter Papenburg holds 25,1% of Salzgitter. This is slightly less than the 26,5% held by Lower Saxony in Germany, where Salzgitter has its headquarters.
Senators ask Biden to reduce South Korean import quotas for piping products
Three Democratic U.S. Senators called on the Biden Administration on Friday to lower the current import quota for oil and gas drilling pipe from South Korea. They said it had impacted businesses in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey, and John Fetterman, senators from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania, all noted that the market for Oil Country Tubular Goods - used in drilling, extraction, and transportation of oil and gas - has decreased, resulting in layoffs at companies operating within the United States. Senators…
Vallourec Tallies $900 Mln ADNOC Contract
France-based Vallourec said it has been awarded a contract by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for the supply of tubing and casing, over a five year period, with a possible two-year extension, for an amount of $900 million.The award, which Vallourec said is one of the largest it has received to date, covers a full range of products, from standard API to high end premium OCTG for both onshore and offshore oilfields, and conventional to complex wells. In addition, Vallourec said it will supply a range of “from mill to rig” services.Tubing and casing will be supplied from Vallourec's mills in Europe…
TechnipFMC Orders Vallourec Pipes for Mero 1
The provider tubular solutions for the energy markets Vallourec Soluçoes Tubulares do Brasil has been awarded by TechnipFMC in Brazil to supply around 12,000 tons of seamless steel rigid line pipe with outside diameters 8” and 10”.The pipe will be used in the fabrication of the riser and flowline system for interconnecting 13 wells (6 production wells and 7 water alternate gas injection wells), to be installed in the pre-salt field Mero 1, which is part of the giant Libra reservoir.Libra covers an area of 1,550 square kilometers…
Vallourec Drilling Products Cuts Roughly 150 Jobs in Texas
Vallourec Drilling Products, a subsidiary of Paris, France-based steel pipe maker Vallourec , will lay off roughly 150 employees in Texas, according to a regulatory filing. Vallourec specializes in making tubular products for the energy and other industrial sectors. It has about 19,000 employees worldwide. The layoffs come as companies that supply equipment and services to the oilfield are still recovering from a three-year rout in oil prices. Although benchmark crude futures have traded above $60 a barrel for much of the year, they have fallen recently amid concerns of growing supply.
Oil Industry Suppliers See Light at the End of the Tunnel
European suppliers to the oil industry, hit by their customers' spending cutbacks over the past two years, have produced stronger than expected second-quarter earnings and are cautiously pointing to signs of recovery in demand. These companies, which encompass oil drillers, engineering groups, oil services providers and seismic surveyors, have had to slash jobs, costs and investments to cope with the fallout from a 60 percent drop in the oil price since 2014. The tide may be turning now the oil price has stabilised but any recovery…
Record Low O&G Volumes Hurt Vallourec in Q1
French steel pipe maker Vallourec on Tuesday reported a net loss and fall in revenues in the first quarter as volumes plummeted to record lows mainly in the oil and gas businesses, but it said results will be better in the next quarter. The company, which supplies the oil and gas industry, said revenues in the quarter fell 36.2 percent to 671 million euros ($771.99 million) compared with the same quarter in 2015, while its net loss was 284 million euros. Oil, gas and petrochemicals contribute to about a third of Vallourec's business. "As expected, the first quarter of 2016 was marked by a decrease in volumes.
Vallourec Says Volumes Hit Record Low in Q1
French steel pipe maker Vallourec said on Tuesday results in the first quarter had suffered from a drop in volumes to record lows, mainly in the oil and gas business, but stuck to previously announced targets for the full year. The group said in a statement it expected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for the first quarter to be slightly better than the 77 million eur loss recorded in the fourth quarter of 2015. (Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Vallourec Cuts Investments Further After 2015 Net Loss
French steel pipe maker Vallourec , which supplies oil and gas companies, reported a 2015 net loss, cut investments for the second consecutive year and said on Thursday that it expected adverse market conditions to persist throughout 2016. Vallourec said it slashed 3,500 jobs in 2015 as revenue from its core oil, gas and petrochemicals business tumbled nearly 38 percent. A sustained fall in oil prices, down around 70 percent since 2014, has forced oil and gas companies to make drastic cuts to project budgets, putting a squeeze on suppliers like Vallourec.
Technip Takes 20% Stake in Vallourec Pipe Weld Unit
French oil services company Technip and Serimax, a welding subsidiary of steel pipe maker Vallourec have reached an agreement in which Technip will take a minority 20 percent stake in Serimax, the companies said. The firms did not disclose the value of the deal, but said it would offer integrated solutions to oil company clients who are facing financial constraints due to the oil price collapse and have to tighten capital expenditure. "This partnership is part of Technip's strategic focus on technology, a key differentiator to contribute to costs optimization on projects…
Vallourec Warns of Further Deterioration in Second Half
French steel pipe-maker Vallourec said its net loss deepened in the second quarter and warned of further deterioration in margins in the second half of the year in the face of falling demand from its oil and gas customers. Vallourec now expects earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to be negative over the full year. Analysts on average had expected 171 million euros of EBITDA in 2015, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. For the second quarter the company posted a net loss of 199 million euros ($217 million), worse than the 76 million euros of the first quarter.
French Energy Firms Join to Put the Case for Shale
A group of French companies have joined forces to change perceptions of the shale energy sector in the face of the country's long-standing ban on hydraulic fracking despite France having to import nearly all its oil and gas. "Shale has become a taboo, it's become an ideological, almost religious debate," said Jean-Louis Schilansky, the former head of oil lobby group UFIP, who will head a new Paris-based think-tank, the Centre for Unconventional Hydrocarbons or CHNC, set up by around 20 French companies. France is estimated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) to hold the biggest reserves of shale gas in western Europe.
Vallourec Q3 Profits Drop on Brazil
Steel pipes maker Vallourec reported a 27.1 percent drop in core profits to 175 million euros ($218 million), hurt by lower orders by major customer Brazilian state oil company Petrobras. The French group had warned in June that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) would drop 10 percent this year as Petrobras ran down inventories to save money. Vallourec reiterated this target on Thursday. "This adjustment in stocks we flagged in June has taken place for the most part in the third quarter and will be less marked in the fourth quarter…
New DNV GL Regional Manager in S. America
Alex Imperial has taken over as DNV GL Oil & Gas’s regional manager for South America just as the company is creating a dedicated research unit in Brazil. Imperial recently left Singapore, where he was Director for DNV GL’s Deepwater Technology Center, to take over DNV GL’s Oil & Gas Division in South America. Experience from his last position will benefit his new role as the new dedicated Research unit means that research will be one of the DNV GL’s focus areas in Brazil. “With the vast pre-salt offshore developments ongoing and planned in Brazil…
Vallourec Repeats 2014 Warning as Q2 Profits Rise
Steel pipes maker Vallourec turned in a second quarter net profit rise of 41.9 percent to 88 million euros ($117.67 million) on Wednesday and repeated its recent warning that challenges in Brazil will eat into its second half performance. The French group said on June 10 that core profit would drop 10 percent this year as customers - mainly Brazilian state oil company Petrobras - run down inventories to save money. Petrobras alone will account for some 60 million euros ($82 million) of the slide in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), which Chairman Philippe Crouzet said in June would amount to between 80 and 90 million.
Vallourec Warns on Profit as Petrobras Cuts Pipe Stocks
Steel pipes maker Vallourec warned core profit would be 10 percent lower in 2014 compared with 2013's 920 million euros ($1.25 billion) as customers - mainly Brazilian state oil company Petrobras - run down inventories to save money. Petrobras alone will account for some 60 million euros of the slide in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), which Chairman Philippe Crouzet on Tuesday told reporters would amount to between 80 and 90 million in total. Crouzet said it would take Petrobras until about the end of the year to run its pipe inventories down to nothing.
