Saipem: results of the third quarter and the first nine months of 2020

Covid-19

In these difficult months, Saipem has confirmed that the structure of its organisation is adequate to manage the ongoing emergency, coordinating over 50 control units and implementing adequate healthcare procedures, extending the remote work programme to all employees, and interacting with clients and suppliers to ensure the progress of project activities, within the limits posed by social distancing and the restrictions on mobility. Safeguarding the health of people remains our top priority.

During the third quarter, costs directly attributable to Covid-19 increased to an amount of about €99 million in the first nine months and connected, among other things, to the purchase of personal protective equipment and devices in addition to standard requirements, the sanitisation of work areas, specific stand-by costs related to the suspension of project activities by order of authorities, the arrangement of charter flights for the repatriation of personnel and management of workers rotations.

To date, out of a total of about 34,000 employees, the percentage of overall Covid-19 positive cases reported by Saipem is around 5%, 9% of whom are still infected and are being constantly monitored by the company.

Highlights

• Solid and diversified backlog of over €24 billion (over 70% of the E&C portion not linked to oil), strengthened thanks to an effective dialogue with certain clients and to the rescheduling of project activities
• New contract awards in the first nine months amount to €5.3 billion (90% not linked to oil), substantially equal to the volume of revenues reported in the period
• The economic and financial results for the third quarter attested the overall recovery of revenues and margins compared to the second quarter, particularly as regards Onshore E&C
• Revenues of the first nine months amount to about €5.4 billion, with an adjusted EBITDA margin over 9%
• Efficiency initiatives launched on the cost structure following the pandemic have been confirmed in 2020, in addition to the rescheduling of capital expenditure, expected for the current year to be below €400 million
• Robust and well-balanced financial structure with improving liquidity, compared to end of June, at over €2 billion. No significant debt maturity prior to 2022 and debt average maturity beyond 3 years
• Updating of financial covenants with further improvement of financial flexibility
• Limited increase of net financial debt pre IFRS 16 to about €970 million in the third quarter, with a good working capital development
• Improvement of future business opportunities, albeit on a longer time frame.

Stefano Cao, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“In a general economic context still heavily penalised by the pandemic emergency, Saipem has ensured to its clients the substantial continuity of the operational activities at all project sites, with the maximum attention to the health of people and respect of healthcare rules imposed worldwide. The operational performance of the third quarter, improving with respect to the previous quarter, demonstrates the reactiveness and adaptability of the company. The sizable and diversified backlog and the consistent liquidity represent a reliable foundation allowing us to be a protagonist in the emerging sectors unlocked by the green revolution and digitization, such as decarbonisation, energy production integrated systems and infrastructures for sustainable mobility, indeed already the subject of our project proposals presented at national level in the context of the European Green Deal strategy.”