AMEC ups margin targets as pretax jumps

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil, gas and mining engineer AMEC reported on Thursday an 87 percent jump in first-half pretax profit, raising its margin targets for the second time in as many months on continued strength in its markets.

AMEC (AMEC.L) said its first-half, adjusted pretax profit rose to 90.4 million pounds, while diluted earnings per share rose 84 percent to 18.8 pence and the half-year dividend rose 15 percent to 5.3 pence per share.

"In 2008 AMEC's end markets in energy, power and process are expected to remain strong," the company said in a statement.

"Each of the group's core businesses is expected to deliver further performance improvement in the second half of 2008, putting AMEC well on track to achieve the recently upgraded EBITA margin of 6.5 percent for the year."

AMEC also raised group margin targets for 2010, to 8.5 percent from 8 percent previously. Last month, AMEC raised its margin expectations for 2008 to 6.5 percent from 6 percent previously, buoyed by strong market and trading performance.

Net cash is expected to stand at over 600 million pounds for the year, Chief Executive Samir Brikho said in the statement.

"The strength of our balance sheet in the current credit crisis, coupled with the attractiveness of the end markets we serve, confirms our confidence in the future," he said.

Shares in AMEC have gained a third in 12 months, to value the firm at 2.65 billion pounds.

(Reporting by Hsu Chuang Khoo; Editing by Greg Mahlich)