InterOil Turns To Loss In Q4, Revenue Climbs - Update

(RTTNews) - InterOil Corp. (IOC) Monday reported a loss for the fourth quarter, compared to a profit last year, even as revenues improved year-over-year.

Net loss was $24.81 million compared to net profit of $18.55 million in the same quarter last year. On a per share basis, loss stood at $0.51, compared to profit of $0.38 in the previous year.

Two analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of $0.04 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Total revenues for the quarter rose to $398.90 million from $356.44 million in the prior year quarter. Midstream - Refining revenues advanced to $353.75 million from $301.93 million, while Downstream revenues decreased year-over-year. For the year, loss attributable to owners of the company was $40.36 million or $0.83 per share compared to a profit of $1.60 million or $0.03 per share last year, primarily due to $41.2 million in exchange rate losses.

Annual revenue advanced to $1.40 billion from $1.321 billion in the prior year. Total products sold climbed 11 percent to 9.4 million barrels and refinery throughput climbed 14 percent to 27,999 barrels per day.

InterOil's Chief Executive, Dr. Michael Hession said, "This past year was a milestone for InterOil. With new leadership and management, we moved quickly to bring greater stability to our operations in a way that would translate into improved performance and greater market confidence.'' IOC closed down 0.5 percent on Friday at $63.41. The stock is up 2.5 percent in pre-market trading.