Singapore’s Swissco Holdings has achieved a full year net profit despite a swing to a loss in the fourth quarter, due mainly to impairment charges made for its rigs and offshore vessels amid the sector’s downturn.

Profit for 2015 was recorded at $31.17m, almost a 100% increase from $15.89m in the previous financial year. Revenue last year climbed by 6.3% year-on-year to $69.65m.

During the fourth quarter of 2015, however, Singapore-listed Swissco posted a loss of $15.08m as against a gain of $87,000 in the previous corresponding period, and the quarterly revenue plunged by 41.7% year-on-year.

The group mentioned that had there been no impairment loss on the rigs and vessels totalling $17m, Swissco would have reported a profit after tax of $1.9m for the fourth quarter of 2015 and $48.2m for the year 2015.

The company said it expects to continue to face challenges due to the current weak oil prices and oil companies reducing their capital expenditure. Depressed charter and utilisation are expected to persist for the rest of 2016.

At present, two of its wholly-owned and a 50%-owned drilling rigs are off-charter, while efforts are being made to increase the utilisation rates for its OSVs and explore new markets including the Middle East, Africa and India.

“We are expecting FY2016 to be a very challenging year for the group, we will continue to pursue cost management exercises and resource reallocation to improve efficiency and cost savings,” said Tan Fuh Gih, executive director of Swissco.

“Management has decided to take pro-active measures to cut remuneration of up to 20% for management staff and 10% for independent directors. Also we will continue to focus on securing contracts for our rigs as well as improving utilisation rates for our OSVs,” Tan said.