at least Haliburton will be able to pay off its abestos lawsuit claims
Halliburton Revenue Rises on Iraq Work
Wed Oct 29,12:19 PM ET Add Business - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL - news), the second largest oilfield services company, on Wednesday said third-quarter revenue rose, largely because of government work related to Iraq (news - web sites), but earnings fell 38 percent on legal charges.
The Houston-based company, which has drawn much attention for U.S. government contracts supporting the military occupation of Iraq, reported net income fell to $58 million, or 13 cents per share, from $94 million, or 22 cents a share, last year.
Earnings for the most recent quarter included a loss from discontinued operations and a charge for a recent jury award in a Texas lawsuit.
Halliburton posted income from continuing operations of 21 cents a share. Wall Street analysts on average expected earnings of 27 cents per share, according to Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group Plc.
"Halliburton has strong fundamentals and going forward their outlook for the fourth quarter is it could be flat, but I think the perception will be it looks better than that," said Brad Handler, analyst with Blaylock & Partners LP.
At midday, Halliburton shares were down 1.7 percent.
Halliburton's engineering and construction subsidiary, KBR, posted revenue of $900 million and operating income of $34 million in the quarter from Iraq-related work, which also contributed earnings per share of 5 cents after tax. KBR's overall revenue for the third quarter increased 80 percent to $2.3 billion.
During a conference call with analysts, Chief Financial Officer Christopher Gaut said the company expects revenues from Iraq-related work to be at a similar level or slightly higher in the fourth quarter.
Halliburton Chairman and Chief Executive David Lesar, meanwhile on the conference call, took a swipe at critics who questioned the government contracts awarded to the company, whose former chief executive is Vice President Dick Cheney.
"You know these attacks are less about Halliburton and more about external political factors," Lesar said. "We have served the military for over 50 years and we have no intention of backing down now."
Halliburton reported revenues rose 39 percent to $4.1 billion, boosted mainly by the government contracts.
Shares of Halliburton fell 39 cents to $23.70 in midday trade on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites).
Earlier this month, Halliburton revised earnings projections down because of increased costs from a joint venture with Norway's DSND (DSND.OL) and increased legal fees for the planned $4 billion settlement of hundreds of thousands of asbestos injury claims.
Factored into that earnings revision was an anticipated charge for a lawsuit brought in a Houston court against a Halliburton subsidiary, said Kurt Hallead, managing director of RBC Capital Markets. The jury recommended an award on Friday which was greater than Halliburton anticipated. The company is taking the charge for that $77-million award in the third quarter.
"How can you predict what a jury's going to do?" Hallead said.
The company -- which said it expects little change in oilfie |
