EARNINGS BOOST
Maiden dividend for Master Drilling amid global growth
Raise-bore drilling specialist declares its first dividend
Raise-bore drilling specialist Master Drilling has declared its first dividend since listing in December 2012 after completing its planned investments in new machinery. Originally a South African company, Master Drilling now earns 58% of its revenue from Latin America, compared with 23% from SA. Its Latin American pipeline was boosted by the acquisition of Bergteamet Latin America in January 2016. Chief financial officer Andre van Deventer said the maiden dividend of 30c a share showed a conservative seven-times cover, but the longer-term target was to reduce cover to four to five times. Headline earnings of 210c a share for the year to December were 19.4% higher than 2015, largely reflecting the weakening of the rand against the dollar. Headline earnings were up 3.6% in US currency. The group’s order book was $196.6m and the total pipeline including contracts awaiting decisions, was R320.8m. CEO Danie Pretorius said Master Drilling’s strategy had changed from four years ago, when t...
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