US shale presence helps John Wood Group's core profit

(Reuters) - John Wood Group Plc , a British energy services company, reported a marginal rise in EBITA for the first half as strength in its production services business was offset by weakness in other divisions. The company, which designs, builds and maintains oil and gas facilities and pipelines, said it continued to expect full-year earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) to increase from last year, led by its production services segment. EBITA for the six months ended June 30 rose to $243.9 million ( 146 million pounds) from $243.2 million a year earlier. Wood Group said EBITA from production services rose 47 percent, helped by an increase in U.S. shale activity, but fell 9 percent in its higher-margin engineering services segment, hurt by a slowdown in upstream projects in some regions. Total revenue rose 10.3 percent to $3.80 billion. The company raised its interim dividend by 25 percent to 8.9 cents. Shares in the Aberdeen, Scotland-based company rose 1.6 percent to 763.7 pence in early trade on Tuesday on the London Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)