The Lamprell Group has played an important role in the development of the offshore industry in the Arabian Gulf for over 30 years, providing increasingly specialised services to the offshore oil industry. Lamprell is managed by British nationals, with its corporate headquarters in Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates, Lamprell operates a full service jackup rig refurbishment facility in Sharjah and a modern, well equipped fabrication facility in Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai.

Lamprell located in the most important oil and gas region in the world, in one of the key commercial centres in the UAE.

Lamprell has its own core skilled and experienced workforce as well as access to additional skilled labour from the local labour supply market.


AIM Rule 26 Disclosure

This, in addition to the Group�s safety focused culture and experienced project management skills, helps to ensure customer satisfaction is maximised whilst risks are reduced.

Lamprell has built up its strong market position by offering a differentiated service to its clients based on safe working practices and completing projects on time, on budget and to a high quality. Accordingly, we believe that the Company has established a position of sustainable competitive advantage in the region.

After early profit taking is on the move up again

Could the company be for SELL? >>>>>>>>>>>


from the Guardian / Monday 19 November 2012 / Simon Neville

Lamprell has revealed its fifth, and by far its worst, profit warning this year, admitting its full-year losses will be seven times bigger that first feared.

The oil rig maker said it will make a loss of $105m (it previously thought the loss would be $12m) and discussions are ongoing with its lenders to avoid breaking its covenants by the end of the year.

A loss of $25m will be made on its Caspian Sea jack-up project and a windfarm project is way over budget and facing penalties for being late.

Yet despite such doom and gloom, shares in the company are up 10.8p, 15.5%, at 80p, in a perfect example of investors preferring to know the true extent of a company's problems, rather than being left with the uncertainty of vague statements that have been made in the past.

The reason for such a huge increase in the company's expected loss comes courtesy of an independent report from PwC to audit the accounts. The report revealed problems far wilder than the incompetent board managed to unveil.

At the fourth profit warning last month the company's chief executive and two senior managers resigned over the fiasco, while a new chairman (who ordered the PwC review) was appointed in the summer.

So, with fresh eyes and fresh legs due at the helm (the company is being run by former boss Peter Whitbread while a replacement is found), analysts appear content and believe any investor would be crazy not to throw some money Lamprell's way.

Brokers comments after yesterday's update ...........

Merrill Lynch upgraded the company from Sell to Buy

The past 6 months were without doubt the most challenging in Lamprell's recent history. With an in depth review of all projects by PWC now complete, today's IMS delivers the largest profits warning to date. However, importantly this looks to draw a line under the issues faced by the troublesome projects. While the company is not fully out of the woods, we believe today's IMS is a significant milestone.


Liberum Capital

We still believe that Lamprell has a strong underlying business and retains competitive advantages in many of its markets. No new contracts have been announced but the bidding pipeline remains highly active and the order book is still around US$1.4bn which gives visibility to revenues through 2013.

Near term profitability could be poor but a new management team can be expected to improve delivery and take advantage of strong markets. We believe the current share price only reflects value for the jackup refurbishment business and, for investors prepared to look forward to 2014, we still believe Lamprell should offer significant upside.


However, they note the company is under investigation by the Financial Services Authority for insider information violations.


Investec

The new chairman's independent review was always going to "kitchen sink" 2012 and the $100m loss revealed in the IMS confirms this. The problem is that 2013 recovery will be slow, with a loss in 1H13 and potentially only breakeven for FY13.
The banks may play ball over missed covenants and the exit route may ultimately be a trade sale, but there are better recovery stories in the sector.

From the Telegraph late yesterday ...............


Lamprell leaps 17pc despite issuing fifth profit warning

Lamprell issued its fifth profit warning since May, as it said losses would be much greater than previously forecast, but its shares jumped 17.3pc on hopes it had finally turned a corner.

Lamprell makes jack-up rigs, which are floating rigs with retractable legs used to secure the unit on the sea floor.

Lamprell issued its fifth profit warning since May on Monday, as it said losses would be much greater than previously forecast, but its shares jumped 17.3pc on hopes it had finally turned a corner.

The troubled oil-rig maker also said it remained under investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) over its handling of inside information before June 7, the date of its second profits warning.

The group said that a review by external consultants, understood to be PricewaterhouseCoopers, had “revealed a much greater loss for the year than previously announced or anticipated”.

It now expected to make a loss of $105m (£66m) this year, compared with the loss of between $12m and $17m it anticipated in its third warning in July. It had said in October that the loss would be “significantly greater” than the July forecast but had not quantified it.

The company has reported a string of losses, delays and deferrals in individual projects, primarily relating to “slippage” of contracts blamed on worldwide equipment shortages, and delays to the delivery of wind farm vessels.

On Monday it reported additional losses and delays to those projects as well as on previously-unreported items.

Lamprell’s chairman and senior management have been overhauled in recent months.

In June, John Kennedy, chairman, was brought in after the second profits warning and indicated that the board had instigated the ousting of its chief executive, Nigel McCue, in October.

Lamprell’s former chief executive, Peter Whitbread, has returned to the top job temporarily, while Lamprell’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer also stood down as directors in October.

Mr Kennedy said on Monday he was “very disappointed” by the latest profits warning but said: “Having now identified the issues and their potential financial impact, the group is in a much better position to draw a line under these events and to take appropriate steps to mitigate or address the issues.”

He added that the outcome of the external review “vindicates the board’s earlier decision to restructure the management team”. The company now hoped for a “gradual” return to profitability in 2013.

Analyst Andrew Whittock at Liberum Capital said the warning was “disappointing” but that “the share price fails to reflect the underlying value of the business” and noted that the group remained “confident of support from its lenders”.

Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch issued a double-upgrade note to a “buy” recommendation, arguing: “Whilst we cannot be certain of no further warnings, we are much more confident that the most significant problems have been uncovered and accounted for.”

After falling in early trading, the shares climbed 12 to close at 81¼p.

Has reached 85.375p on a steady rise/spike, breaking last Monday 84p intraday high
a bit volatile since the last rise with some retracement.

no obvious reason for this little burst for glory, and volumes are not especially high either

Entering a very 'gappy' area.

Took profits at 87p, the spike is very large and has the habit of profit taking after that.

I also like the gaps, could see this over 100p. Have topped up again this morning. Good forward order book, especially if managed well. H

Directorate Change

Lamprell (ticker: LAM), a leading provider of diversified engineering and contracting services to the onshore and offshore oil & gas and renewable energy industries, is pleased to announce that James Moffat has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer effective March 1st, 2013.

market sentiment is very positive on this one at the moment.

Toying with a quid, RSI looking strong.

SP trying to break through 100p, then what?

The gaps to 105 & 120p perhaps.

skinny make it 120p our xmas prezzie,

BANKING WAIVERS AND CONTRACTS UPDATE

Lamprell is pleased to announce today that it has received the necessary waivers from its various lenders with respect to its existing debt facilities. As previously announced, Lamprell has been in discussions with its lending banks in order to seek waivers of certain of its banking covenants before the year-end. These discussions have been successful and culminated in a waiver of its financial covenants under the debt facilities, which were due to be tested on 31 December 2012.

The working capital position of the Company has improved significantly in recent months and we have ended the year with a net cash position in the region of US$100 million. This has resulted from higher levels of revenue and the enforcement of tighter financial controls.

As anticipated, the revenue levels will reduce in the early part of 2013, however we remain confident that, with the support of our core lenders, we will continue to have adequate working capital to finance the business and to have access to the necessary financing arrangements in order to fund certain new projects. In addition, the Company is moving forward with a wider financing of the business which will provide a longer-term financial platform to fund its growing activities. This is expected to be completed during the first half of 2013.

With regard to the Caspian Sea jack-up project (as referred to in the Company's announcement of 19 November 2012), Lamprell has successfully launched the rig into the water in accordance with the current completion schedule. Given the challenging weather conditions in the Caspian Sea region, this milestone was of critical importance and released a significant associated milestone payment.

As announced previously, the Company has been taking various steps to mitigate the potential losses on the Windcarrier 2 project and, as a result, is confident of delivering the vessel as planned on 15 February 2012, with the naming ceremony scheduled to take place on 19 January 2012.

In another example of the strong support that the Company continues to receive from its customers, Lamprell has recently been awarded a further North Sea related project valued at approximately US$40 million and it relates to one of our stated core discipline areas in which the Group has a strong track record.

Lamprell is planning to release a more detailed trading update for the period ending 31 December 2012 in late January 2013.

one gap filled - another opened!

Roaring ahead after the positive news 111p +17p

a remarkable turn-around in the fortunes of this company ...... i wonder if it makes it any more or less vulnerable as a t/o target

Merrill Lynch note today:
"It has been a long time coming, but despite some scepticism in the market Lamprell this morning reported a positive trading statement. The key issue surrounding covenants has been resolved, with the company being able to receive waivers for the covenants that would have been tested on Dec 31st. We have always expected waivers as there has been no question regarding the liquidity of the company. Net cash at the year end stood at c.US$100m, helped by better financial controls in place, milestone payments and higher activity levels.
Following the rally the shares have shown since the mid November trading statement, we have just 30% upside today. However, the outlook remains encouraging and we anticipate that the good news can continue to flow. From a valuation standpoint, Lamprell now trades in line with the sector for 2014, at a PE of 10.4x. Following today's release we are leaving our estimates, PO and Buy rating unchanged, and expect to see the rerating of the shares to continue."