KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): Bumi Armada Bhd reported fourth quarter net profit of RM63.82 million versus net loss of RM1.38 billion a year earlier as the oil and gas support service provider registered higher revenue and lower impairment.

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia today, Bumi Armda said revenue rose to RM662.15 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2017 (4QFY17) from RM106.25 million. Bumi Armada's income statement showed that impairment fell to RM664,000 from RM1.15 billion.

For the full year, Bumi Armda said net profit stood at RM352.25 million against a net loss of RM1.97 billion a year earlier. Revenue was higher at RM2.4 billion compared to RM1.32 billion.

"The group's revenue of RM2.4 billion for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2017 (FY17), an increase of RM1.08 billion compared to the financial year ended Dec 31, 2016 (FY16), was mainly attributed to increased revenue from the Armada Olombendo FPSO (floating production storage offloading), Armada LNG Mediterrana floating storage unit (FSU), one-off revenue recognised based on work completed on the LukOil project arising from the signing of the supplementary agreement and recognition of supplementary payments for the Armada Kraken FPSO project in FY16. The increase was offset by lower utilisation of the (three) OSV (offshore support vessels) in FY17.

"Oil prices are forecast to be more stable over 2018, helping to provide more visibility for the oil and gas industry going forward, and we do expect to see an increase in exploration and production activities over the course of the year. Over the course of 2018, we expect to see a more stable performance from the group on the back of the internal reorganisation and cost rationalisation, as well as the final acceptance of the new large projects, carried out over the last 12 months," Bumi Armada said.

Today, Bumi Armada shares settled unchanged at 85.5 sen at 12:30pm for a market value of RM5.02 billion. The stock saw 3.64 million shares traded.