Apr 2013 Financial News

Mora Ven has ‘heartening’ 2012. Profit improves to $5.8m

Apr 02, 2013

Local oil company Mora Ven Holdings Ltd has posted improved profits for its financial year 2012. Despite some setbacks, chairman George Nicholas said 2012 was a heartening year.

The audited accounts of the company showed profit before taxation of $5,854,615 as at December 31, 2012. "Our gross profit has increased by 50 per cent over 2011," Nicholas said in a statement. "This year end achievement was as a consequence of revenue growth of $68,591,499; a 14 per cent increase over 2011. Twelve per cent of that increase came from renewable energy sales. Total assets increased by seven per cent from 2011 and now stand at $259 million."

Nicholas also noted that current assets increased by 24 per cent whilst current liabilities grew by 19 per cent. "In some ways 2012 was disappointing. The seismic work, which had created great hope for us early in the year, turned into an expensive investigation. It has taken six months extra and expensive work by a Houston specialist to correct the poor work, and we are taking steps to recover the extra costs through arbitration. However, we are now finally in possession of the report and can move forward positively," he said. "During 2012 there were elections in many countries in our region, which affected the timing of purchasing of large systems sold by our Solaris division. We now have reason to be hopeful (as the election season is behind many countries) that we can contribute to the growth of those countries by installing our new Solaris products which will significantly reduce imported or finite energy dependency and increase the use of renewable energy resources."

In terms of Mora Ven's oil business, he said there was an extensive well intervention at the end of the year which resulted in a doubling of production to 400/450 barrels per day of crude. "With the new seismic data available to us, we intend to look to contract with a drilling company with a view to testing some of the bright spots either by adjusting our existing wells or developing new wells in our field. We have some issues going forward with our supply line, but...I remain confident that this will not be interrupted and our increasing production of crude will find a profitable route to market," Nicholas said.

The Mora Ven board of directors has agreed to pay to all shareholders registered on April 16 a dividend of $.15 per share.

"We hope that this is not a declaration in isolation and can be the beginning of rewarding shareholders for loyalty and support during difficult times," Nicholas said.


Source:
Trinidad Express
Tuesday April 2, 2013

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/business/Mora-Ven-has-heartening-2012-201155971.html