Oil services company Halliburton Co said on Thursday its first-quarter net profit rose 13 percent, helped by pricing gains and new contracts from customers in international markets. Halliburton reported a 2007 first-quarter net profit of $552 million or 54 cents a share, compared with $488 million, or 46 cents a share in the same quarter a year earlier.
The 2007 net profit includes the results of engineering and construction firm KBR Inc, which Halliburton split off as a separate company earlier this month. Net income from continuing operations rose to 52 cents per share from 42 cents per share a year earlier, matching analysts' forecast, according to Reuters Estimates.
Revenue in the quarter rose 17 percent to $3.4 billion from $2.9 billion a year before. The company attributed that increase to higher world-wide activity and its focus on investing in and expanding Eastern Hemisphere operations. The company in March said it will move its headquarters and Chief Executive Dave Lesar to Dubai to focus on growing its business in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Halliburton's operating income in North America, the company's biggest market, was near unchanged at $494 million versus $493 a year before, although revenues there grew to $1.67 billion from $1.51 billion. By contrast, Europe, Africa and the former Soviet states saw nearly a 50 percent increase in operating income to $149 million from $100 million a year earlier, while revenues there rose to $783 million from $607 million.
In the Middle East and Asia, the company reported revenue rose to $563 million, up 21 percent from a year earlier. Operating income in the region climbed to $127 million from $103 million in the same period a year earlier.