Temporary power provider Aggreko's profit falls, shares sink

(Reuters) - Aggreko, the world's largest temporary power provider, reported an 11.8 percent fall in full-year profit, sending its shares down more than 9 percent to their lowest in 8-1/2 years on Tuesday morning.

Aggreko's power solutions utility business, which installs and operates modular, mobile power plants in emerging markets, has been under pressure primarily due to lower pricing and volumes in Argentina.

The company, which powers major events and covers electricity shortfalls, said its operating margin fell to 13 percent in 2017 from 16 percent a year earlier with margins in the power solutions utility declining 11 percentage points.

Aggreko expects to renew about 174 megawatts (MW) of contracts in Argentina but at a further price discount to the extensions it secured in 2016, it said.

The company forecast profit before tax this year to be in line with 2017, excluding the impact of currency, and said order intake was 137 MW so far this year.

The British company said pretax profit before exceptional items fell to 195 million pounds in 2017, from 221 million pounds in the preceding year.

Revenue before exceptional items rose 14.2 percent to 1.73 billion pounds.

Aggreko stock was down 9.5 percent at 655.2 pence at 0836 GMT and was the top loser on the FTSE mid cap index.

(Reporting by Esha Vaish and Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Gopakumar Warrier)