From the Houston Business Journal
Weatherford International Ltd. (NYSE: WFT) reported a net loss of $1.78 billion, or $1.98 per share, in the third quarter.
That compares to Weatherford’s second-quarter loss of $565 million, or 63 cents per share, and its loss of $170 million, or 22 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2015.
However, most of the third-quarter loss was due to $1.43 billion in after-tax charges. The adjusted loss was $349 million, or 39 cents per share, and analysts had expected a loss of 25 cents.
Weatherford’s third-quarter revenue of $1.36 billion was down 3 percent compared to the second quarter and down 39 percent from the third quarter of 2015. Analysts had expected revenue of $1.44 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.
Revenue for the company’s North America operations grew 12 percent compared to the second quarter, while international revenue declined 4 percent, excluding Weatherford’s now-concluded Zubair project. When excluding revenue from the Zubair project, Weatherford’s total revenue increased 1 percent from the second quarter, the company’s first sequential revenue increase after seven consecutive quarterly declines.
“We are encouraged by our revenue performance in the third quarter and the fact that our operating income margins improved modestly,” Weatherford Chairman, President and CEO Bernard Duroc-Danner said in a statement. “With these positive signs, a low cost structure and a repaired balance sheet, we are increasingly confident about our future. Technology and service quality will drive our path forward. Operations is our entire focus. Through innovation, we are further integrating our product line disciplines, which will improve productivity and result in higher capital efficiency.”
During the third quarter, Weatherford completed the final 8 percent of its 8,000 planned job cuts, which will save the company $504 million annually. It also ceased operations at three more manufacturing and service facilities and closed five operating and other facilities, bringing the year-to-date figures to 10 and 59, respectively.
Duroc-Danner also said the “market is slowly turning” after the industry bottomed out in the second quarter.
