08.08.2013

Harsco Infrastructure - On the up

Scaffold and access rental company Harsco Infrastructure saw revenues growth in the second quarter.

Looking first at the six months, revenues are down just over one percent to $467.2 million, while operating loss was reduced from $77.9 million last year to $14.2 million this year.

Moving on to the second quarter revenues improved by seven percent, while the operating loss was reduced from ﾀ24.3 million last year to ﾀ2.2 million this year. Without exceptional costs the comparison is a loss of $2.2 million this year compared to $3 million in the first quarter of 2012.

Looking at the Harsco group as a whole, revenues declined 3.5 percent to $1.47billion, while pre-tax profits were $53.27 million compared to a loss of $924,000 last year.

Chief executive Patrick Decker said: "Second quarter earnings per share were within our guidance range and driven by the performance of the Infrastructure, Rail and Industrial businesses. The Metals & Minerals business, however, continues to face macro industry challenges and as a result, this business performed below our expectations."

"We are confident that we are taking the steps necessary to better position Harsco for financial and operational success. At the same time, we are also aware of the need to achieve our goals more quickly and deliver more value to all of our stakeholders. To that end, we are executing a comprehensive simplification program that is focused on improving our operating model to increase our speed and ability to execute."

"We are also continuing to explore ways to optimise our portfolio of businesses to drive future growth. We believe that these initiatives are highly complementary and demonstrate our commitment to improving Harsco's financial profile and shareholder returns."

Vertikal Comment

It is encouraging to see the Harsco Infrastructure business post an increase in revenues and a further reduction in its losses, to a point where it could just break even this year - or better. One cannot help but be slightly concerned over the chief executives comment "executing a comprehensive simplification program that is focused on improving our operating model to increase our speed and ability to execute" if that means further restructuring and dabbling from corporate HQ.

Let's hope it means leaving the operational staff to get on with rebuilding the business and being faster in terms of customer service.