AMEC FOSTER WHEELER PLC (Reuters) - Amec Plc (>> AMEC plc), a British engineering and project management company, reported a 30 percent fall in first-half pretax profit as a strong pound overshadowed an increase in orders, and lowered its revenue expectations for the year.
Amec shares fell as much as 3.3 percent in morning trade, making them one of the biggest losers on the FTSE-250 Midcap Index <.FTMC> on Thursday.
Amec now expects a "modest" underlying revenue growth in 2014 due to a fall in margins in its Americas businesses, from an earlier guidance for "good" underlying growth in revenue.
"As expected, we are seeing less greenfield activity in some of our key upstream oil and gas markets, which is partially offsetting the strong growth from clean energy and Middle Eastern oil & gas," Chief Executive Samir Brikho said in a statement.
Amec provides engineering, project management and consultancy services for the oil and gas, mining, nuclear and renewable energy, and infrastructure industries.
The company said pretax profit fell to 83 million pounds for the six months ended June 30 from 118 million pounds a year earlier.
Revenue fell 7 percent 1.86 billion pounds, including a 160 million pound impact from foreign currency translations.
About 60 percent of Amec's revenue comes from the Americas and nearly 30 percent from Europe.
The pound gained 12.4 percent against the U.S. dollar
The group's order book at June 30 was 4.2 billion pounds, compared with 3.9 billion pounds a year earlier.
Amec expects its acquisition of Foster Wheeler AG (>> Foster Wheeler AG) to now close early in the fourth quarter, pushed back from the end of the third quarter.
The company bought Swiss rival Foster Wheeler to expand its reach in Latin America and the Middle East, as well as gain an entry into the U.S. midstream market.
Amec shares were down 1.3 percent at 1075 pence at 0920 GMT (10.20 a.m. BST).
(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bangalore; Editing by Robin Paxton and Gopakumar Warrier)
