KrisEnergy Q4 loss widens to US$82.7m despite higher revenue

KRISENERGY, which is in the midst of a debt restructuring, sank further into the red for the fourth quarter last year. Its net loss deepened to US$82.7 million, from the US$73.9 million loss a year ago.

Despite a surge in revenue, the bottom line was weighed down by higher depreciation, depletion and amortisation charges as well as increased finance costs, the upstream oil and gas firm said on Friday.

Finance costs amounted to US$15.2 million compared to US$11.3 million a year ago. This comprised non-cash accretion of bond discount, lease liability and decommissioning provisions, bank loan interest on the revolving credit facility from DBS, default interest expenses on the due-2022 and due-2023 notes, and financial restructuring expense.

Loss per share stood at 5.5 US cents for the quarter, compared to the year-ago loss per share of five US cents.

Revenue doubled to US$35.1 million from US$17.4 million a year ago, mainly as a result of two liftings from the Wassana field in Q4 2019 compared to only one lifting in Q4 2018.

This was partially offset by the lower average realised selling prices for oil and liquids. The average benchmark Brent crude price fell 9 per cent year on year during the quarter.

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Due to the group's accumulated losses, no dividend was declared for the year ended Dec 31, 2019, the same as the year before.

For the full year, net loss widened to US$168.9 million, from the US$137.4 million loss for 2018.

Lower prices and lower sales dragged revenue down by 12.6 per cent to US$126.5 million for the year.

As at Dec 31, 2019, the group had about US$503 million in borrowings and debt securities repayable within the next one year or on demand.

These comprise its zero-coupon notes, the DBS revolving credit facility maturing on June 30, 2020, the notes maturing in 2022 and 2023, as well as two unsecured term loans from HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank.

Last week, KrisEnergy said it would not make principal and interest payments totalling US$4.5 million coming due on Feb 21, 2020, under the two term loans. It also would not pay about S$4.2 million in interest due on Feb 22, 2020, under the notes maturing in 2023.

KrisEnergy's debt moratorium has been extended till May 27, 2020.