EANS-Adhoc: C.A.T. oil AG
C.A.T. oil approves the 2011-12 investment program
of EUR 150 million for further growth and diversification
ad-hoc disclosure pursuant to section 15 of the WpHG transmitted by euro adhoc with the aim of a Europe-wide distribution. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
New Products/Investment program
08.11.2010
Vienna, 8 November 2010 - C.A.T. oil AG (O2C, ISIN: AT0000A00Y78), an independent oil and gas field service provider in Russia and Kazakhstan, today announced that the Company´s Supervisory Board has approved a major investment program which aims at further growth and diversification of the Company´s business. C.A.T. oil´s 2011-12 capital expenditure program will total EUR 150 million and consist of two parts: The major portion of the investment will be used to build up a third core business of high-class onshore drilling services and a smaller portion of the investment will be diverted to reinforce the Company´s existing businesses of sidetrack drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Given the long lead time to supply of the new operating capacity, the investments are expected to make material contribution to the Company´s earnings from 2012 onwards.
The bulk of investments in new onshore drilling business will be used to purchase nine state-of-the-art North American mobile drilling rigs in H2 2011. Approximately one third of the new drilling capacity will be put into operations in H2 2011 and the rest at the beginning of 2012. In addition, the investment program foresees the expansion of the sidetrack drilling capacity by two rigs to bring the Company´s total number of sidetrack drilling rigs to 17 in Q1 2011 from 15 rigs at the moment.
C.A.T. oil plans to capitalize upon its existing sidetracking capabilities and infrastructure as well as its proven track record of organic growth and diversification to penetrate safely a premium segment of the Russian high growth drilling market.
The Company will maintain its conservative financial policy and a strong equity base. The investments will be primarily financed from the Company´s operating cash flow as well as long-term debt. For this reason, the Company has upgraded its committed but unutilized credit line with EUROBANK EFG to EUR 100 million from EUR 50 million and extended it until October 2015.
C.A.T. oil AG Kaerntner Ring 11-13 A-1010 Vienna Austria
Ticker symbol: O2C ISIN: AT0000A00Y78 Common Code: 025162498 Listing: Official Market / Prime Standard, Frankfurt Stock Exchange www.catoilag.com
End of Adhoc Release
Additional information:
Manfred Kastner, CEO of C.A.T. oil, commented: "Over the past four years we have successfully diversified into the high-margin sidetrack drilling business which has become our number one growth driver. The expansion into high-end onshore drilling represents another strategic step along our successful path of profitability and growth. With an estimated growth rate in excess of 10% per annum, the Russian onshore drilling market offers us attractive opportunities. Based on the improved market conditions we feel that the time is right to take additional steps to prudently diversify our business. We will thus leverage our profound experience and our existing workforce to set up conventional drilling as a third service offering of our Group. This will allow us to realise additional growth as we are able to offer attractive additional services to new clients and to cross-sell these to existing accounts."
Following the implementation of the investment program, C.A.T. oil will be a service provider which will offer both, brownfield services on existing wells, as well as greenfield services on completely unexploited oil sources. The addition of high-class drilling services to the service portfolio will contribute to further diversify and round the Company´s revenue and earnings mix.
C.A.T. oil´s Supervisory Board has also approved the Company´s dividend policy. The dividend policy foresees the distribution of at least 20% of the Company´s consolidated net profit in a form of cash dividend to shareholders over the long-term earnings cycle. The dividend payout is dependent upon the Company´s earnings and cash flow constraints, investment and financing requirements and the environment in the oil field services market. It is intended that the policy leaves the Company the necessary flexibility to maintain sufficient liquidity and an adequate capital structure. The full dividend policy will be available on the Company´s website.
www.catoilag.com
Press contact: Financial Dynamics GmbH
Carolin Amann Lucie Maucher Tel.: +49 (0)69 92037-132 Tel.: +49 (0)69 92037-183 Email: carolin.amann@fd.com Email: lucie.maucher@fd.com
About C.A.T. oil AG:
C.A.T. oil AG is one of the leading providers of oil and gas field services in Russia and Kazakhstan and is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (SDAX). C.A.T. oil offers a wide spectrum of services to increase the lifecycle of an oil field or to make unexploited oil fields accessible. The Company´s growth is driven by the following factors: Existing oil fields need to be stimulated due to shrinking oil and gas resources in order to optimize capacities. Simultaneously, idle wells are reactivated or made accessible through new methods in order to deploy wells to their maximum. Additionally C.A.T. oil will establish conventional drilling as third core service which allows activating completely unexploited oil and gas sources.
Since its foundation in 1991 in Celle, Germany, C.A.T. oil has built up a leading hydraulic fracturing services business in Russia and Kazakhstan. Following its IPO in 2006 the Company has invested more than EUR 200 million in additional services and capacities: Sidetrack drilling has become the Company´s second core business. In November 2010, the Company introduced a comprehensive investment program with a volume of EUR 150 million which will mainly be used to set up conventional drilling as part of the Company´s service portfolio. Furthermore, C.A.T. oil offers coiled tubing, formation evaluation services, well work-over, cementing and seismic services. Due to the recent expansion investments C.A.T. oil´s fleets and rigs are state-of-the-art and therefore allow for time-efficient and effective deployment. C.A.T. oil´s customer base includes the leading Russian and Kazakh oil and gas producers amongst them Gazprom, KazMunaiGaz, LUKOIL, Rosneft and TNK-BP. C.A.T. oil has a long-standing relationship with these customers and has been a reliable service provider since its market entrance in the early nineties.
The Company has its headquarters in Vienna and employed an average of 2,455 people on 30 June 2010, most of whom are based in Russia and Kazakhstan.
end of announcement euro adhoc
Further inquiry note:
Lucie Maucher
Tel.: +49 (69) 920 37-183
E-Mail: lucie.maucher@fd.com
Branche: Oil & Gas - Upstream activities
ISIN: AT0000A00Y78
WKN: A0JKWU
Index: SDAX, Classic All Share, Prime All Share
Börsen: Frankfurt / regulated dealing/prime standard