Falkland Islands Holdings rises on oil hopes

Falkland Islands Holdings has risen despite producing uninspiring interims, with both revenues and profits virtually flat year-on-year.

For the six months ended September 30th revenues were virtually unchanged at £16.5m, with pre-tax profits marginally up at £1.08m (2011: £0.99m).

Divisionally, Falkland Island Company (FIC), its trading company on the Falkland Islands, increased pre-tax profits to £0.54m (2011: £0.51m) on sales of £6.94m (£6.99m).

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Portsmouth Harbour Ferry Company (PHFC) increased sales by 3.3% to £2.22m, although passenger numbers declined by 7.6% to just over 1.6m. Pre-tax profits fell to £0.31m (2011: £0.39m).

Momart, its London-based group art handling and logistics business maintained sales at £7.4m, with profits rising to £0.14m (2011: £89,000).

However, it is a 4% holding in Falklands Oil and Gas (FOGL) that has investors excited as this is seen as making it a relatively low-risk play on the potential development of oil around the Falkland Islands.

During the period, FOGL announced farm-ins with Noble Energy and Edison International diluting FOGL's interest to a 40% interest in its northern licences and 52.5% in its southern licences.

Drilling at FOGL's Scotia and Loglio wells has been completed, with hydrocarbons discovered. Further evaluation of these discoveries is in progress and a 3D seismic survey is imminent.

At 15:30 Falkland Island Holdings' shares were up 11p at 311p.

CM