Aggreko expecting a lift from superstorm Sandy

By KRISTY DORSEY
Published on 16/12/2012 00:00

DEMAND for temporary ­power in the US following ­superstorm Sandy is expected to have benefited Aggreko in the wake of a profits alert.

While storm-related revenues are not unusual for Aggreko, Seymour Pierce analyst Caroline de La Soujeole said events in the US could provide a 2 per cent boost to pre-tax forecasts for its year end.

The Glasgow-based company is due to post a trading update tomorrow.

“As Sandy has been described as the largest hurricane in Atlantic storm history, we therefore feel justified to use as a base case scenario the events of 2008 – Hurricane Gustav and Ike – and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which were the last two particularly eventful years for Aggreko,” said the analyst.

The group is currently tipped to post full-year pre-tax profits of £364.8 million for 2012, up from £307.1m in 2011.

Although Aggreko received a £59m contribution from its London 2012 contract, it said in October that its overall results were impacted by unfavourable currency movements and bad debt provisions.

Since then, it has won work in the US where the superstorm knocked out the main power supply in many parts of New York and along the east coast. The group, which also provided power generation and temperature control systems at events such as the World Cup and US Superbowl, said in October that underlying revenues rose 13 per cent in the third quarter, helped by the Olympics work.