CEO Jeff Olsen said the Salt Lake City-headquartered company, which claims to be the world's leading supplier of drilling services, equipment and tooling for mining and drilling companies, saw increased rig and tooling sales. It also boasted of productivity improvements in its drilling services unit.

 

Revenues were up US$24 million to $188 million, EBITDA was $13 million equating to a $17 million year on year improvement from the March 2017 loss of $4 million, and adjusted EBITDA that excludes restructuring costs, was $14 million. 

 

The drilling business generated $122 million in revenue while the company's products division generated $66 million.

 

After tax the company posted a loss of $17 million, a 64% improvement. One of the reasons for the increase in revenue was a 1% increase in pricing and increased rig utilisation rates of 44%.

 

"We continue to see improvement in the market and the strategic activities executed over the last couple of years have us well placed to capture our full share of increased demand, for both drilling services and products," Olsen said.

 

The company was entirely funded from its cashflow for the period, and did not need to tap its reserves, a turnaround from early 2017 when it needed to pull $39 million from its treasury to keep the business ticking over.

 

Net debt was also driven down $110 million to $616 million while liquidity comprised cash of $37 million and $18 million of availability under the company's asset-based loan facility.

 

Shares in the almost 130-year-old company were last traded at 1.2c, capitalising it at $315.5 million.