Hunting Trims EBITDA Guidance as Kuwait Tender Slips

Hunting PLC told investors on its first-half 2026 earnings call that Titan revenues rose 45% and Subsea revenues rose 95%, but management cut full-year EBITDA guidance because of geopolitical headwinds in the Middle East, including a delayed Kuwait Oil Company tender.

Hunting PLC's first-half 2026 earnings call delivered two messages that pull in opposite directions. The company's fastest-growing product lines are compounding hard — Titan revenues up 45% and Subsea revenues up 95% — yet management still trimmed its full-year guidance for EBITDA, citing geopolitical headwinds in the Middle East and a delayed tender with Kuwait Oil Company.

That combination is the whole story of the print. Growth is real and it is where Hunting has been telling investors to look. But the group's outlook still hinges on large, lumpy national oil company awards, and when one of those slips a quarter or two, the segment momentum underneath it cannot fill the hole fast enough to keep the full-year number intact.

Titan and Subsea did the heavy lifting

The 45% rise at Titan and the 95% rise at Subsea are the kind of growth rates that normally reset how a market values an industrial supplier. Titan sits in perforating and energetics work tied to North American completions activity; Subsea covers the connectors and equipment that go onto seabed infrastructure, a business driven by offshore project sanctioning rather than by the shale treadmill.

The two lines matter for different reasons. Titan is the shorter-cycle, higher-volume side of Hunting: it moves with well completions and can turn quickly in either direction. Subsea is the long-cycle side, where revenue arrives against project schedules set years in advance. Having both up sharply in the same half suggests the strength is not simply one hot end market — it is broader demand for the group's manufactured content.

What management did not do was let that growth carry the guidance. The decision to lower the full-year EBITDA outlook — EBITDA being earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, the profit measure most oilfield equipment names steer investors toward because it strips out capital-intensity effects — is an admission that the shape of the second half has changed.

The Kuwait tender is the swing factor

The specific drag flagged on the call was a delay in the Kuwait Oil Company tender. National oil company tenders in the Gulf are among the most valuable contracts available to an oil country tubular goods and premium connection supplier: they are multi-year, high-volume, and they lock in manufacturing utilisation. They are also politically and administratively slow, and they do not move on a supplier's fiscal calendar.

Hunting tied the softer outlook to geopolitical headwinds in the region more broadly, not to a lost award. That is an important distinction for shareholders. A delayed tender is deferred revenue, not destroyed revenue, provided the process resumes and Hunting wins its expected share. A cancelled or reallocated award is a different problem entirely. The company's language on the call pointed to timing.

Still, timing has a cost. Guidance cuts caused by delay tend to invite a second question from the market: how much of the full-year plan was riding on a single customer decision? The fact that segment growth of 45% and 95% at Titan and Subsea was not enough to protect the EBITDA guide is itself an answer of sorts — the Middle East order book carries real weight in the group's earnings mix.

The shares closed lower on the day

Hunting's U.S.-quoted line, under the symbol HNTIF, last traded at 5.43, down 2.51% from a prior close of 5.57, according to market data as of 20:00 GMT on Friday, 28 August 2026. The day range was flat at 5.43 on both ends — a signal of the thin, sporadic trading typical of a secondary quote for a London-listed industrial rather than of any dramatic intraday swing. The exchange and quotation currency were not specified in the data used here, and investors comparing the number with Hunting's primary listing should check which line they are looking at.

The wider tape gave the move no help. The S&P 500 tracker closed at $769.35, off 0.23%, the Nasdaq 100 tracker at $716.43, down 0.65%, and the Dow tracker at $535.06, essentially unchanged at -0.03%. A modest down day for U.S. equities, in other words, with Hunting's decline running steeper than any of the three benchmarks.

What the second half has to prove

Three things will determine whether this is remembered as a timing wobble or the start of something worse.

• Whether the Kuwait process restarts on a visible schedule. Investors will want a date, or at least a stage, rather than a reassurance. A tender that re-enters the pipeline with award timing attached is recoverable; one that stays open-ended keeps the discount on the shares.
• Whether Titan's growth rate holds. A 45% increase off a first-half base is a demanding comparison to lap. Perforating demand tracks completions activity closely, and any softening in North American drilling would show up here before it showed up elsewhere in the group.
• Whether Subsea's 95% surge is backlog conversion or new bookings. Revenue growth in long-cycle offshore work can simply reflect the delivery of orders taken earlier. The forward signal is the order intake behind it.

The earnings call detail was reported by GuruFocus.

How this fits the wider oilfield services picture

Hunting's half sits inside a pattern that has run through the energy equipment sector for several reporting seasons: offshore and international work is where the growth is, and Middle East activity is where the schedule risk is. Suppliers with heavy exposure to Gulf national oil companies have repeatedly found that award timing, not demand, is the variable that breaks a guidance range.

For a company of Hunting's size, that concentration cuts both ways. A single large Gulf award can lift a year; its absence can force a trim even when two divisions are growing at double and near-triple digit rates. Shareholders now hold a business whose underlying product momentum looks stronger than its near-term earnings guide implies — a gap that either closes when the tender lands, or hardens into a valuation problem if it does not.

The next set of numbers, and any interim update on the Kuwait process, will decide which.

Key facts

• HNTIF last price: 5.43, -2.51% (as of 20:00 GMT, 28 Aug 2026)
• Titan revenue growth (H1 2026): +45%
• Subsea revenue growth (H1 2026): +95%
• Guidance action: Full-year EBITDA guidance trimmed on Middle East headwinds

Frequently asked questions

Why did Hunting cut its full-year EBITDA guidance?

Management pointed to geopolitical headwinds in the Middle East, including a delay to the Kuwait Oil Company tender. The delay pushes expected work later than the company had planned for, and the growth reported at Titan and Subsea in the first half was not enough to offset that shift within the current financial year.

How fast did Titan and Subsea grow in the first half of 2026?

Hunting reported that Titan revenues rose 45% and Subsea revenues rose 95% in the first half of 2026. Titan covers perforating and energetics products tied to well completions activity, while Subsea supplies connectors and equipment for seabed infrastructure on offshore projects.

What is the KOC tender and why does it matter?

KOC refers to Kuwait Oil Company. National oil company tenders in the Gulf are multi-year, high-volume supply contracts that lock in manufacturing utilisation for equipment makers. A delay defers rather than destroys the revenue, but it removes a chunk of expected second-half contribution from the guidance year.

Where did HNTIF shares close?

HNTIF last traded at 5.43, down 2.51% from a prior close of 5.57, as of 20:00 GMT on 28 August 2026. The day range was 5.43 to 5.43, reflecting thin trading. The exchange and quotation currency were not specified in the market data used for this article.

Did the broader market move on the same day?

U.S. benchmarks were modestly lower. The S&P 500 tracker closed at $769.35, down 0.23%; the Nasdaq 100 tracker at $716.43, down 0.65%; and the Dow tracker at $535.06, down 0.03%. Hunting's decline was steeper than all three.

What should investors watch next?

Three markers: whether the Kuwait Oil Company tender re-enters the pipeline with a visible award schedule, whether Titan can sustain its growth rate against a tougher comparison, and whether Subsea's increase reflects new order intake or the conversion of backlog booked in earlier periods.

Sources

• Hunting PLC (HNTIF) (H1 2026) Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Segment Growth Offsets KOC ... — GuruFocus

Photo: Erique Erufu Onojoserio · Pexels Licence — source