Worley Parsons plans $100m asset sale

Worley Parsons aims to offload more than $100 million of assets as it targets a total $180 million in savings over the next 18 months.

WorleyParsons aims to offload more than $100 million of assets after a 78 per cent slump in first half profit led to the scrapping of its interim dividend.

The engineering and construction giant declined to specify which of its "non core assets" it plans to sell, but said it has targeted a total $180 million in savings over the next 18 months.

"We are looking at a number of things," chief executive Andrew Wood said.

"We'd rather not detail them here because we don't want to pre-empt the conversations that are going on, but they range from some physical assets through to potential components of business."

WorleyParsons shares dropped 55 cents, or 13.06 per cent, to $3.66, wiping more than $105 million off the company's value.

Mr Wood said WorleyParsons had already delivered $120 million in annualised savings through initiatives including job cuts, the closure of 14 offices and stripping out a layer of management.

Staff numbers have been cut from 31,400 to 28,300, with redundancy payments of $30.9 million contributing to the drop in net profit in the six months to December to $23.1 million.

Revenue declined five per cent to $4.2 billion against a backdrop of low oil and commodity prices.

"These resulted in a contraction of our customers' capital and operating budgets, project cancellations and deferrals," Mr Wood said.

The company reiterated it has no plans for an equity raising, insisting it can cut debt using the cash it will have saved.

WorleyParsons said scrapping its interim dividend, which was 34 cents a year ago, was one of its initiatives that would help strengthen its balance sheet.

COMMODITIES SLUMP HITS WORLEYPARSONS

* Net profit down 78pct to $23.1m

* Revenue down 5pct to $4.19b

* No interim dividend, down from 34 cents


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Source: AAP



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