Boart Longyear Limited (BLY) has revised its revenue forecast downwards. The company said it now expected growth to be approximately 18%, year-on-year, compared with the 22% cited in October.
Despite the news, the company opened over 8% higher.
The drilling company attributed the downgrade to the recent decline in the value of the Australian dollar and Canadian dollar as well as lower revenues from its products division.
Boart also pointed to the financial uncertainty and volatility of its major customers as a reason for the downgrade.
COO Craig Kipp said that despite the revised revenue figure, the fundamentals of the company remained sound, even if it was entering into a difficult period.
"The financial performance of our drilling services business continues to be very solid, even with approximately 15% of our rigs now idle," he said.
"However, our products business has recently experienced a decline in orders for manufactured products, particularly in our capital equipment product line.
Mr Kipp said the declines in orders were starting to flow through into lower revenues.
"As previously highlighted, given the ongoing global macroeconomic conditions, the company expects that 2009 will present a challenging operating environment," he said.
"As a result, the company is taking action to implement announced cost reduction activities and other plans to reduce costs and working capital."
The company said its focus in the 2009 year would be to manage liquidity and reduce debt.
Boart has cut 500 jobs recently and said additional actions were expected to be announced shortly.
At 1015 AEDT, Boart shares were up 2.5c, or almost 11% to 26c.