Story ID: 465Bristow
Bristow Group Hits Earnings Turbulence
By: Mark Huber
Caption: UK helicopter operator sees lower earnings, but sees opportunity with SAR bases opening.
Word Count: 394
Bristow Group announced substantially lower net income for the nine months ending December 31, capped by a modest loss in the most recently completed quarter. The offshore, gas and petroleum helicopter services company said net income dropped 55.7 percent, to $69.2 million, from the $156.4 million posted for the same period a year ago. Bristow announced a $1 million loss in the last quarter. However, revenues over the nine-month period increased 18 percent. 
  
Bristow said the declining values of foreign currencies contributed to $27.3 million of the slide. The decline in oil prices also adversely affected the company, according to CEO Jonathan Baliff. “The recent rapid decline in oil prices is leading to a reduction in capital expenditures by most of our clients. We anticipated these developments in the latter half of calendar 2014 and implemented a proactive strategy to help our clients meet their cost-reduction objectives,” he said. “We are also proactively making cost and capital efficiency improvements in partnership with our OEM and lessor partners. This will allow our business model to thrive and capitalize on this environment for our clients, as we continue to execute our growth plan including the startup of the UK search-and-rescue contract in April 2015.”
  
In 2013, Bristow was awarded a 10-year SAR contract by the UK department of transportation to fly from 10 bases. That mission was previously performed by elements of the UK military and coast guard. Those bases are scheduled to come online in a graduated fashion beginning April 1, beginning at Humberside and Inverness.
  
Samantha Willenbacher, director of UK SAR for Bristow, praised the cooperation the company has received from the military in transitioning to the contract. “We have worked closely with them in preparing for the civilian service to go live and also have welcomed many of them into the new civilian SAR force,” she noted. 
  
Other bases scheduled to come online in the coming months include Caernarfon and Kent on July 1; St. Athan on October 1; Prestwick and Newquay on Jan. 1, 2016; and Lee-on-Solent, Sumburgh and Stornoway in 2017. 
  
Separately, Bristow Academy announced an annual scholarship in honor of former company CEO Bill Chiles. The scholarship covers the full helicopter CFI tuition of any graduate of the Bristow Academy professional pilot program. Academy director Todd Smith said the scholarship was created to honor Chiles’s leadership in creating Bristow’s “Target Zero” safety culture.