MILAN--The market misinterpreted the 2014 outlook Saipem SpA
(SPM.MI) provided in a profit warning earlier this week, Chief
Executive Umberto Vergine told the Italian daily Il Corriere della
Sera.
"The market didn't expect" Saipem to cut guidance, Mr. Vergine
said in an interview published Saturday. The profit warning
prompted a 34% price drop Wednesday in the Italian
oil-field-services provider's shares.
Some new contracts that had been expected to close at the end of
2012 have been delayed and will be closed in coming months, Mr.
Vergine told Il Corriere della Sera. "Basically, this year we'll
work on contracts with lower margins, which we acquired during the
crisis," he said.
"There has been a delay. Normally oil companies provide
indications on their plans in the last quarter of the year, but
this time they delayed this because of strategy reasons," he
said.
Mr. Vergine said Saipem is in talks for important deals but also
has invested heavily to make these deals possible. "Let's look at
Brazil. A closed market where the discovery of big offshore oil
fields has created huge perspectives. To enter that market we first
closed small deals and now we're negotiating on a completely
different basis. There are also projects such as Southstream,
Nordstream and those in the Persian gulf, which are a lot," Mr.
Vergine said.
Hours before Saipem issued its profit warning on Tuesday, Bank
of America Merrill Lynch placed 10 million shares in the market on
behalf of an unidentified investor. Mr. Vergine said in the
interview that he didn't know about Bank of America's placement and
that he learned about it from the press only while it was
happening.
Italy's stock-market regulator Consob said that it would conduct
a review of the placement.
Bank of America had no comment on the sale or Consob's
review.
Saipem's cuts to guidance came as Mr. Vergine announced an
"operational review of the entire business." Saipem's new guidance
points to net profit this year of 450 million euros ($613.9
million), half the expected result for 2012 and less than half of
the consensus forecast among analysts.
Mr. Vergine was appointed CEO of Saipem in December. He was
previously chief operating officer of the oil-and-gas division of
Eni SpA (ENI.MI, E), the Italian oil company that owns 43% of
Saipem. Eni had no comment on the investigation.
Publication website: www.corriere.it
Write to Manuela Mesco at manuela.mesco@dowjones.com
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