PHOTO
Australia-based global engineering and project management firm Worley expects FY2025 to deliver moderate growth compared to FY2024, citing geopolitical dynamics and policy shifts affecting energy transition investments globally.
“We’ve seen policy settings of many governments, including energy transition policies, impacted by major election cycles. As these dynamics evolve, we anticipate FY2025 to show moderate growth relative to FY2024,” CEO Chris Ashton said at the company’s annual general meeting this week.
In the Middle East, the company is working on projects for Saudi Aramco, Oman's PDO and Morocco's OCP among others.
Worley's FY2025 outlook, announced in August 2024, projects low double-digit EBITA growth for FY2025, with underlying EBITA margins (excluding procurement) expected to range between 8 percent and 8.5 percent.
“We expect the second half of FY2025 to be stronger than the first half as the rebalancing process proceeds during this year. We expect some growth on procurement volumes due to project mix and timing,” he noted.
Ashton added that the company is well-positioned to win a competitive share of work coming out of the new US administration’s policies, particularly around its focus on LNG as a transitional fuel.The company recorded 1,048 sustainability-related contract wins in the first quarter of FY2025, up from 840 in Q4 FY2024 and 774 in Q1 FY2024. Traditional sector wins totaled 448.
“Sustainability-related work in our factored sales pipeline is now 85 percent with 56 percent in our backlog. We remain committed to achieving our aspiration of deriving 75 percent of our aggregated revenue from sustainability-related work by FY2026, subject to market conditions,” said Ashton.
Worley reported a rise in detailed design awards for sustainability-focused projects advancing to later stages, highlighting progress even as clients carefully balance capital allocations.
Early-phase projects, encompassing feasibility and front-end engineering design (FEED), maintained steady activity across both sustainability-related and traditional sectors.
In August 2024, Zawya Projects reported that Worley will start FEED work on the Tarfaya green ammonia project in Morocco in the third quarter of 2024.
The feasibility phase recorded the highest number of sustainability-related wins (437), while the FEED phase accounted for the highest number of traditional wins (147).
Middle East contracts this year, based on previous ASX-listed announcements, include:
Framework agreements with Gulf Petrochemical Services & Trading (GPS) and Galfar Engineering and Contracting for PDO’s northern concessions in Oman
A five-year General Engineering Services Plus (GES+) contract with Saudi Aramco, with potential three-year extensions.
A Project Management Consultant (PMC) contract extension for the Kuwait Environmental Remediation Programme (KERP) with Kuwait Oil Company (KOC).
Additionally, Moroccan phosphate and fertiliser producer OCP selected Worley Chemetics’ proprietary sulphuric acid technology for its three greenfield sulphuric acid plants located at the Mzinda Phosphate Hub (MPH).
In August 2024, Worley had reported FY2024 aggregated revenue of A$11.6 billion, an 18 percent increase year-on-year, with sustainability-related projects contributing 52 percent of total revenue. Underlying EBITA rose 24 percent to A$751 million, with margins improving to 6.5 percent, compared to 6.1 percent in the previous year. The EBITA margin, excluding procurement, grew 7.9 percent, an increase from 7.3 percent in FY2023. Net profit after tax and amortisation (NPATA) was A$416 million, a 27 percent increase year-on-year, while operating cash flow nearly doubled to A$682 million.
(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by SA Kader)
Subscribe to our Projects' PULSE newsletter that brings you trustworthy news, updates and insights on project activities, developments, and partnerships across sectors in the Middle East and Africa.
