SBM Offshore shares dived on Thursday after the Dutch oil and gas services company's cautious guidance disappointed the market despite full-year results meeting expectations.
For 2022, the group expects revenue to amount to more than $3.1 billion and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to reach about $900 million.
Analysts polled by the company forecast full-year revenue of $2.99 billion and EBITDA of $993 million.
Quirijn Mulder from ING called the guidance "very cautious", while analysts at Barclays wrote that "guidance at the EBITDA level...is a touch light".
Chief executive Bruno Chabas said the EBITDA guidance included foreseen effects of COVID-19, costs to mitigate impacts in project execution and manage conflict prevention in SBM's fleet, as well as additional maintenance pushed into 2022.
"Based on the visibility that we've got, we feel this is a reasonable place to start," finance chief Douglas Wood told analysts in a call.
The company's shares were down by 6.2% by 1055 GMT.
"NOBODY KNOWS"
Sensitive to customer's capital expenditure plans, SBM could benefit from record earnings reported by BP, Shell and Equinor as oil and gas prices soar.
The supplier of floating oil and gas production vessels however warned of travel and logistical curbs, price inflation, yard closures and supplier capacity constraints that affected construction activities for its major projects in 2021.
"Nobody knows whether there is a real retreat of COVID-19 this year," ING's analyst Mulder added.
According to SBM, the degree to which these challenges can be mitigated going forward varies by project, but their advancement remains on track, providing cash flow visibility until 2050.
The company reiterated its willingness to invest in its renewable pilot projects over the coming years, particularly in floating offshore wind, in order to be "in line with market dynamics".
Italian peer Saipem risks becoming a casualty of the transition to cleaner energy after a shock profit warning left earlier in February leading shareholders scrambling to shore up the finances of the energy services group.
(Reporting by Juliette Portala and Olivier Sorgho; editing by Kirsten Donovan, Clarence Fernandez and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
