Fluor’s Net Income Soars 69%

Fluor Corp. said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit jumped 69% from a year earlier despite a 6% decline in revenue.

Fluor, one of the world’s largest providers of construction, engineering and consulting services, said net income in the three months ended Dec. 31 rose to $48.2 million, or 61 cents a share, from $28.5 million, or 36 cents, in the same quarter a year ago.

The latest results included earnings of $3.5 million, or 5 cents a share, from discontinued operations. Excluding that gain, the Aliso Viejo-based company earned $44.7 million, or 56 cents a share, from its ongoing lines.

That was a penny better than Wall Street expected, based on analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Fluor’s fourth-quarter revenue slipped to $2.47 billion from $2.64 billion.

The company’s earnings benefited from profit gains at its power generation, global services and energy and chemicals groups, the company said.

But the value of Fluor’s new project awards in the fourth quarter fell to $1.54 billion, from $2.83 billion a year earlier, mainly because of a previously announced suspension of an oil and gas project in Kazakhstan. The project’s partners have since resolved funding problems, “which should allow the project to move forward,” Fluor said.

For 2002, net income was $163.6 million, or $2.05 a share, up from $19.4 million, or 25 cents, in the prior year. The 2001 results included a $108-million loss from discontinued operations. Revenue rose 11% to $9.96 billion last year from $8.97 billion.

Fluor also restated its expectation that the company’s 2003 earnings would be from $2.13 to $2.35 a share.

Before the results were announced, Fluor’s stock closed at $27.41 a share, down 9 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.