Baker Hughes, General Electric's oilfield services arm, reported a better than expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, helped by higher activity in LNG markets and rise in international demand for oilfield services.
GE itself swung back to a financial loss in the second quarter, as the cost of restructuring its ailing power business and the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max jetliner model drained more cash than than expected from GE's otherwise profitable industrial units.
Revenue from the company's oilfield services segment, which constitutes a majority of its operations, rose 14 per cent to $3.26 billion (Dh11.97bn in the second quarter.
Orders in its turbomachinery and process solutions business, which includes supply of equipment for LNG projects, rose 32 per cent.
"We remain well positioned across multiple market segments, most importantly LNG, as more projects move towards positive FID (final investment decision) this year", chief executive Lorenzo Simonelli said.
The company's adjusted net income rose to $104 million, or 20 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, from $41m, or 10 cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of 19 cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Total revenue rose to $5.99bn from $5.55bn.
Boston-based General Electric, maker of jet engines, power plants and medical devices, also said chief financial Jamie Miller was stepping down but would stay on until a successor is hired.
The company raised its 2019 outlook for industrial organic revenue growth to a "mid-single-digits" percentage increase from an earlier "low-to-mid single digits", lifted the range of adjusted earnings per share by 5 cents to between 55 cents and 65 cents, and shifted its forecast for industrial free cash flows to between negative $1bn and positive $1bn, from $0 to negative $2bn.
GE said it saw a $600m cash outflow due to the grounding of Boeing's 737 Max planes, for which a GE joint-venture makes engines, and it would take a hit of $400m per quarter in the second half if the grounding continued.
GE's adjusted industrial free cash outflow in the quarter was $1bn, at the low end of the $1bn to $2bn range that GE chief executive Larry Culp indicated in May.
GE said its loss from continuing operations attributable to shareholders was $291m in the quarter ended June 30, compared to a profit of $679m a year earlier.
Loss per share from continuing operations was 3 cents down from a profit of 8 cents, the company said. On an adjusted basis, GE earned 17 cents per share, including a one-time tax audit gain of 6 cents. That compared with analysts estimates of 12 cents, on average, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Total revenue fell 1.1 per cent to $28.8bn.
