Covid-19: Caverton Records N5.9bn Loss

Chinedu Eze

Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc, (Bloomberg: Caverton NL), the leading provider of marine, aviation and logistics services to local and international oil and gas companies in Nigeria, has announced its unaudited results for the period ended 31st December 2021, showing a loss of N5.9billion.

This result came due to the serious negative impact that the Covid-19 pandemic continues to have on business operations in Nigeria and the rest of the world, which has caused significant reduction in activities by International and Local Oil and Gas companies who are the major clients of Caverton, which, in turn, rubbed-off our Caverton operations and profitability.

Commenting on the results, Bode Makanjuola, Caverton’s Chief Executive Officer, said that the loss was caused by the significant reduction in revenue due to several mitigating factors because of the covid pandemic which resulted in drop in oil production and net foreign exchange loss due to Naira devaluation against the dollar.

“As a result of this our direct costs increased significantly in 2021.”

Commenting further, the CEO stated that, notwithstanding the loss reported in 2021, Caverton has robust reserves to accommodate this loss and a bulk of the reported loss is a one time charge on our accounts which arose from high start-up costs of our most recent helicopter contract with Chevron.

To further boost revenues, the Group has been exploring further opportunities within and outside the oil and gas sector. In addition to growing our market share in the oil and gas logistics sector, our primary focus for the year will be on third party training and maintenance.

“Our Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility and our Caverton Aviation Training Centre (CATC), both in Lagos, officially commenced business operation in the 2nd half of 2021. Prospects for training and maintenance is extremely positive as we are in advanced contract negotiations with a number of government and private institutions across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Caverton Aviation Training Centre (CATC) full flight simulator gained full certification by EASA, (European Union Aviation Safety Agency), in October 2021. The EASA’s mission is to promote the highest common standards of safety and environmental protection in civil aviation.

“The Agency develops common safety and environmental rules at the European level. With global certification by an internationally recognized body CATC is now suitably qualified to undertake simulator training on the AW139 helicopter for Pilots from Nigeria and any part of the world and we expect this to not only boost the Group’s revenue in the coming year, but also reduce capital flight from Nigeria,” Makanjuola said.