Capital Ltd (LON:CAPD) has confirmed a first-half revenue rise, with the second quarter beating management expectations, as the mining sector services contractor continues to perform strongly despite the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The company, which previously withdrew its guidance amidst the coronavirus uncertainty, generated some US$65.1mln of revenue up 18.8% from the comparative period of 2019 and up 8.5% from the preceding three months.
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It comes as the company operates a larger fleet of rigs and maintains higher utilisation – it owned 99 rigs at the end of the half, up from 92 a year ago, and average utilisation was 57 compared to 48.
Capital brought in US$32.6mln of revenue in Q2, up 17.5% year-on-year and slightly better (0.2%) than the first three months of 2020.
The company noted that core long-term contracts continue to perform strongly and there were no material disruptions to existing operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has, however, limited people movement and slower supply chains, increased rostered days off, delayed some tender processes and exploration activity.
Nonetheless, Capital landed a number of new contracts - in Egypt, Mali, and Tanzania - as well as securing contract extensions in Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania and Mali. Additionally, the company noted that where exploration programmes had been suspended some were resumed in June.
"Capital has performed strongly in the first half of the year, despite the challenges presented by the global COVID-19 pandemic,” Jamie Boyton, the group's executive chairman said in the H1 trading update.
“There are some encouraging signs of improvement in the situation, with the resumption of smaller exploration projects and easing of some travel restrictions, and we remain prepared for any changes to the current situation.”
He added: “We continue to consolidate the company's presence in the highly active West African market, which now contributes 31% of our revenue.
“We have increased the number of assets operating at many of our long-term projects, and we are seeing an increase in enquiries and tender activities for the mining division in particular.”