EANS-News: C.A.T. oil AG / C.A.T. oil benefits from expansion into sidetrack drilling in 2008

- Revenues up 24.1% YoY to EUR 276.2 million – representing an

all-time-high
- Growth driver sidetrack drilling: contribution to
revenues rose to
around 30% of total revenues in 2008, up from 16%
in 2007
- Total EBITDA declined 5.1% YoY to EUR 47.2 million due to
cost pressure
- Order book for 2009 amounted to EUR 188 million at
the end of Q1 2009 – robust demand for brownfield services
- Cost
reduction programmes initiated to increase profitability

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Wien (euro adhoc) - April 30, 2009 - C.A.T. oil AG (O2C, ISIN:
AT0000A00Y78), one of the leading providers of oil and gasfield
services in Russia and Kazakhstan, today announced the audited
results for the financial year 2008. As published in a preliminary
earnings statement on April 17, 2009, the Company achieved a 24.1%
growth in revenues despite an extremely challenging market
environment. C.A.T. oil increased revenues to EUR 276.2 million
(2007: EUR 222.6 million) and slightly exceeded its revised revenue
target of EUR 270 million. This all-time-high in revenues has been
supported by a 14.5% rise in deployment jobs as well as an 8.8%
increase in average revenues per job. These growth rates confirm the
success of the Company´s diversification strategy, as well as its
strong market position based on high quality services and modern
technology.

Strong operative performance in both core businesses

By the end of fiscal year 2008 the fracturing business of C.A.T. oil
consisted of 15 state-of-the-art fleets with an average age of five
years, allowing very efficient and reliable deployment. In its first
core business hydraulic fracturing C.A.T oil benefited from a 20.3%
YoY rise in job count. Throughout 2008 C.A.T. oil continued to expand
its second core business sidetrack drilling, adding an extra four
rigs and bringing the total number to 14 at year end. C.A.T. oil was
able to make very good use of its sidetrack drilling capacities and
improved utilization, thereby increasing sidetrack drilling job
counts significantly by 165.7% YoY. Sidetrack drilling has thus again
been growth driver number one in 2008, making C.A.T. oil the fastest
growing company in this business in Russia.

Manfred Kastner, CEO of C.A.T. oil AG, commented: "Our
diversification strategy and the massive expansion into sidetrack
drilling pays off: In 2008 this business not only stood for one third
of our total revenues, but EBITDA from this high-margin service was
effectively at par with hydraulic fracturing. Thanks to this growth
driver we could off set price pressure in hydraulic frac-turing and
increase our overall average revenue per job from TEUR 90 to 98."

Sharp rise in cost of revenues, depreciation and corporate tax rate

The Company´s strong operative performance was impacted by pressure
on the cost base and negative effects in the core markets which were
related in large parts to the global financial crisis. As a
consequence, EBITDA declined 5.1% YoY to EUR 47.2 million (2007: EUR
49.7 million) primarily due to inflationary pressures on the
Company´s operating cost base. EBIT fell 44.3% YoY to EUR 20.7
million (2007: EUR 37.2 million), reflecting a 110.5% YoY in-crease
in depreciation. In 2008, net income decreased by 88.7% YoY to EUR
2.6 million (2007: EUR 22.7 million) primarily due to higher
unrealized foreign exchange losses on euro-denominated loans, losses
from impairment of fair value of financial investments, increased
interest expenses and an unusually high effective income tax rate.
Earnings per share amounted to EUR 0.05 (2007: EUR 0.46).

Sound cash position and strong equity base

In 2008, C.A.T.oil continued to operate on the basis of a solid
financial posi-tion. The Company´s cash flow from operating
activities went up 19.4% YoY to EUR 25.2 million in 2008 from EUR
21.1 million in 2007. Cash flow from in-vesting activities declined
51.6% YoY to EUR -43.2 million from EUR -89.4 million a year ago due
to lower capital expenditures. Cash flow from financing activities
increased to EUR 27.6 million (2007: EUR 8.0 million), mainly due to
a draw down of EUR 30 million from a three-year EUR 50 million
committed credit line. Cash and cash equivalents stood at EUR 14.4
million at 31 De-cember 2008 (31 December 2007: EUR 15.0 million).
C.A.T. oil´s equity ratio remained at a very strong level and
amounted to 73.4% (2007: 82.3%).

Kastner added: "Our efficient use of modern technology and our high
quality approach has yet again contributed to our strong organic
growth. With our strong operative track record, our competitive
position in our core markets and our solid financial situation we are
well prepared to address the market chal-lenges we currently
experience. We will carefully monitor the needs of oil and gas
producers, continue to deploy our customer relationships and thereby
set the basis for C.A.T. oil´s long-term growth."

Resilient demand for brownfield-related services

The global economic development remains difficult to foresee and the
2009 outlook for the oil and gas industry has been moderate so far.
As a result of lower global demand and a weak oil price, oil and gas
producers have signifi-cantly reduced their budgets for 2009. In Q4
2008 and in Q1 2009 C.A.T. oil has already taken steps to adjust its
operating cost base and to strengthen competitiveness in a
challenging market environment. The Company´s strong operative
track-record and its excellent customer relationships have
contrib-uted to another successful order book filling. Although it
has taken more time than in the past as customers have revised and
reassessed their business plans several times, C.A.T. oil has been
able to secure its 2009 order book of EUR 188 million (assuming an
exchange rate of 48 Rouble/Euro) by the end of the first quarter.

Based on current developments the Company expects to keep the service
job count at the level of 2008 with resilient demand for brownfield
services and weaker demand for greenfield services. C.A.T. oil
therefore expects to be primarily active its core services with
robust demand for fracturing jobs and further growth in sidetrack
drilling.

At the same time, price pressure, as well as a further devaluation of
the Rou-ble and Tenge against the Euro is expected to continue
influencing the Com-pany´s revenues. At this point in time, with the
uncertain global economic out-look the Company believes it would be
prudent to obstain from guiding the market on the expected 2009
financial result.

Cost cutting programmes

In view of the uncertain outlook C.A.T. oil has taken steps to
increase profit-ability. In winter 2008/2009 the Company has entered
into renegotiations with subcontractors and suppliers. Purchase
prices for some of the materials and supplies, including fuel, as
well as transportation and other subcontractor costs were reduced by
up to 15% on average.

Moreover, C.A.T. oil has started to adjust its workforce to the
changed demand and to bring down wage levels. C.A.T. oil intends to
reduce the number of employees in Russia and Kazakhstan mainly by
fluctuation and bring down the 2009 weighted average headcount to
about 3,000 employees from 3,621 employees in 2008. In addition, the
company has a flexibility to reduce average wages by up to 25% at
expense of variable components as total wages had extraordinarily
gone up throughout Russia and Kazakhstan in 2008.

Focus on improvement of profitability

Throughout 2009 C.A.T. oil will closely monitor market developments
and cus-tomer demands and adjust its services and capacities
accordingly. The Com-pany will moreover intensify its strict cost
management and continue to im-prove capacity utilization. With
respect to further expansion C.A.T. oil does not plan major
investments - apart from one sidetrack drilling rig which is
sched-uled for delivery by mid-2009. Capital expenditure will
therefore remain way below historic levels as investments will
concentrate on maintenance of the existing capacity in good working
order.

In its operations C.A.T. oil will make best possible use of its
strengths, i.e. of-fer integrated deployment solutions and high
quality standards. In the currently difficult market environment,
being a reliable partner for oil and gas producers is even more
important and one key for C.A.T. oil to maintain its strong market
position and to increase its leading role as service provider in the
long-term. C.A.T. oil has almost finished its post-IPO investment
cycle and will continue to operate from a strong equity base. It will
thus continue its successful busi-ness strategy in 2009 to further
develop the Company and prepare C.A.T. oil for new market
opportunities and long-term future growth.

Key financial figures for fiscal year 2008
[in million EUR] 2008 2007 Change in %
Revenues 276.2 222.6 24.1
Gross profit 48.7 56.8 -14.2
EBITDA 47.2 49.7 -5.1
EBITDA margin 17.1 22.3
EBIT 20.7 37.2 -44.3
EBIT margin 7.5 16.7
Net profit for period 2.6 22.7 -88.7
Earnings per share (in EUR) 0.05 0.46 -84.8

Balance sheet total 284,1 85,3 0.3
Equity 208.6 234.9 -11.1
Equity ratio 73.4 82.3
Capital expenditure 44.2 89.2

Cash flow from operating activities 25.2 21.1 19.4
Cash flow from investing activities -43.2 -89.4
Cash flow from financing activities 27.6 7.9 245.3
Cash and cash equivalents 14.4 15.0 4.3

Total job count 2,831 2,473 14.5
Per-job revenue (in thou. EUR) 98.0 90.0 8.5
Employees (average) 3,621 3,127 15.8

www.catoilag.com

Press contact:
A&B Financial Dynamics
Carolin Amann Lucie Kimmich
Tel.: +49 (0)69 92037-132 Tel.: +49 (0)69 92037-183
Email: c.amann@abfd.de Email: l.kimmich@abfd.de

About C.A.T. oil AG:

Austria-based C.A.T. oil AG (O2C, ISIN: AT0000A00Y78) is one of the
leading providers of oil- and gasfield services in Russia and
Kazakhstan. C.A.T. oil´s core business is hydraulic fracturing, a
process which helps to open up oil- and gas-bearing rock formations
in order to increase or even enable oil and gas production. The
C.A.T. oil crews use state-of-the-art methods and technologies to
generate high pressure in the oil or gas reservoirs concerned. This
pressure causes cracks to appear in the rock through which oil or gas
can be produced in larger quantities from the production well, and
hence efficiently boosts extraction, particularly in the case of
deposits that are difficult to develop or low-output wells. In
addition, hydraulic fracturing can be used to revitalize wells that
have previously been idle.

The Company has its headquarters in Vienna and employed 3,621 people
at the end of 2008, most of whom are based in Russia and Kazakhstan.
Customers include lead-ing oil and gas producers such as Gazprom,
KazMunaiGaz, LUKOIL, Rosneft, and TNK-BP. C.A.T. oil has been listed
in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Ex-change since May 4,
2006, and has been a member of the SDax since September 18, 2006.

end of announcement euro adhoc
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ots Originaltext: C.A.T. oil AG
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Further inquiry note:

Lucie Kimmich

Tel.: +49 (69) 920 37-183

E-Mail: l.kimmich@abfd.de

Branche: Oil & Gas - Upstream activities
ISIN: AT0000A00Y78
WKN: A0IKWU
Index: SDAX, Classic All Share, Prime All Share
Börsen: Börse Frankfurt / regulated dealing/prime standard