Lamprell tumbles after profit warning Shares in Lamprell lost two-thirds of their value on Wednesday after the oil and gas contractor warned that delays to deliveries of equipment and unexpected costs would drag it into the red. Dubai-based Lamprell blamed the delivery delays on increased demand for oil rig components, which have in turn weighed on margins. The FTSE 250 group, which builds and leases oil rigs and related equipment, has continued to pay staff despite the delays that have prevented work from being performed, further eroding margins. The delays prompted Lamprell to warn that it would swing to a pre-tax loss in the first half to June 30, compared with a profit of $18.6m in the same period a year ago. The news pushed down Lamprell shares by as much as 70 per cent in early London trading. They recovered slightly in morning trading to be down 61 per cent at 116.8p. The share price fall wiped £470m from the group's market capitalisation the previous day of £772m. Lamprell's announcement sent analysts back to their spreadsheets, with Keith Morris at Investec cutting his full-year pre-tax profit forecast from $117m to $38.5m and earnings per share by two-thirds to 14.7 cents. Analysts" full-year revenue forecasts were also pared back from $1.28bn to $1.1bn, while the net profit margin expectation was left almost two-thirds lower at 3.5 per cent. Lamprell said the revised forecasts would leave margins "considerably below the board's original expectation for the year," but expressed confidence that they would recover in 2013. Wednesday's gloomy outlook was in contrast to a bullish statement from Lamprell two months ago when the group said that the high price of oil and gas had spurred demand for its contracting services. Nick Copeland and Oriel Securities said Lamprell "issued a very disappointing trading update." and added: In spite of the recent contract awards adding to an already strong order book, today's announcement creates a lot of uncertainty and we are placing our recommendation under review.