Transocean Posts Loss on Goodwill Impairment Charge

   By Maria Armental 
 

Offshore oil driller Transocean Ltd. logged a $992 million charge in the fourth quarter to correct the value of its contract drilling business, amid falling demand as sharply lower oil prices have led energy companies to slash spending and shelve projects.

As the result of the impairment charge, the company said it has no goodwill remaining on its balance sheet.

Overall, Transocean reported a net loss for the quarter of $739 million, or $2.04 a share, compared with a net profit of $233 million, or 64 cents a share, a year earlier.

Earlier Wednesday, Moody's Investors Service cut Transocean's corporate rating to junk. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Fitch Ratings, which currently rate the company just above junk, also have indicated possible downgrades.

The Switzerland-based company, which boasts the world's largest fleet of offshore drilling rigs, spent billions of dollars over the past few years expanding its fleet--just before oil prices collapsed.

The ill-timed expansion led to Chief Executive Steven Newman's abrupt resignation last week. Mr. Newman had assumed the company's reins just weeks before Transocean's Deepwater Horizon rig blew out in 2010, killing 11 workers and spewing the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Excluding write-off charges and other items, adjusted profit was 95 cents a share, up from 71 cents a share a year earlier.

Revenue edged lower to $2.24 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 77 cents a share on $2.1 billion in revenue.

Contract backlog was $21.2 billion as of its Feb. 17 fleet status report, compared with $23.6 billion as of Oct. 15.

Fleet utilization was 72% for the quarter, compared with 75% in the third quarter and 83% in the year-ago period.

Shares were down 1.3% to $15.85 in after-hours trading.

Write to Maria Armental at [e-mail]

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