New Fortress Energy shares tumble after it misses earnings expectations

New Fortress Energy Inc missed its second-quarter earnings estimate on Friday due to delays in launching a floating LNG facility off the coasts of Altamira and Mexico.

New Fortress' stock fell 21% in the morning of Friday on Nasdaq.

According to LSEG, the company reported a quarterly net loss of $88M and a loss of 44 Cents per Share. This compares with a median expectation from nine analysts of earnings of 7Cents per Share.

The second quarter revenue fell by 23.8%, to $428.01 millions from $690.01 million the first quarter. This is well below analysts' expectations of $509.24million.

The core earnings, or EBITDA, fell from $340 million in the first quarter to $120 millions.

Wesley Edens, the chairman of Mexico's first LNG Export Facility, acknowledged that performance had been disappointing and missed expectations. He blamed delays in starting Mexico's LNG export facility for this.

Edens said in a Friday earnings call that the delays in deploying our first FLNG... asset were the sole cause of the missed targets.

Edens, the company that has been developing the floating LNG operations, said on Friday it had exported the first partial shipment.

NFE has set a target and forecast of earning $275 million per quarter for the rest of the year. Edens warned that the third-quarter results would also be negatively affected by the delayed startup of the LNG plant, which will not reach full production until September 1.

We performed our first partial cargo transfer this morning. Edens explained that the unit will be shut down for a planned maintenance period of approximately one week, and then restarted. (Reporting and editing by David Holmes in Houston, Curtis Williams from Houston)

(source: Reuters)