Benny Steinmetz Group Resources Ltd. (BSGR) subsidiary Bateman Litwin NV (AIM:BNLN) today revised its profit outlook for the full fiscal year ending June 2008, and the share promptly plummeted by more than 50% to ₤0.41 from its opening price of ₤0.90. At the same time, the company announced a number of contracts.
In a trading update, Bateman Litwin predicts $850 million revenue for the year and a record backlog of $1.3 billion at the end of June. However, the company has revised its operating profit to $15-20 million. It also expects the net profit to total $20 million, thanks to $15 million in finance income from hedging gains. The company attributes the drop to revision of certain projects as well as delays and ongoing negotiations to change orders on a large oil and gas project.
Bateman Litwin will publish its fiscal 2008 financial report by October 28.
At the same time, the company announced a number of contracts. The Litwin Saudi Arabia unit won a $71 million engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract to build material handling system from Ma'adan Phosphate Company. The project will take 20 months, and is due to become operational in 2010.
In the second contract, the Litwin EMEA unit won a €100 million EPC contract to build a waste-to-energy plan in Ireland for Indaver NV. This plant is due to become operational in 2011.
Bateman Litwin's solvent extraction business unit, part of the advanced technologies division, has won two contracts. The first contract, worth $4.9 million , is to design and supply proprietary solvent extraction equipment for a uranium production plant in South Africa for Australia's Mintails Ltd. (ASX: MLI). The plant will have an initial throughput capacity of 9.6 million tons of slime per year. The second contract, worth $10 million, is to supply know-how and basic engineering for solvent extraction, electrowinning and ion exchange processes for copper, cobalt and zinc production facilities for Baja Mining Corp. (TSX: BAJ) in Mexico. This project is due to take 32 months, in two stages.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 29, 2008
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