Only a handful of FTSE 350 companies are due to give updates to the market this week, but one of them will be closely watched by the North Sea energy industry.
Energy service group Petrofac is due to make a trading statement tomorrow.
Laura Hoy, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that the impact of inflation will make or break Petrofac this year, after last year finally making its way out from a bribery investigation.
She added: "The group's core engineering and construction business is struggling against cost and supply-chain headwinds, which could ultimately tip free cashflow into the red.
"Last we heard, management was expecting a 'modest' free-cash outflow this year, but things may have worsened as persistent inflation could push the division's projects further over budget.
"This would have a knock-on effect on net debt, which was already on the rise last year.
"Existing projects aside, new business is the other focus for Petrofac. The bribery investigation meant major markets like the UAE were off the table. But, now that chapter's closed, we'd like to see the group build up its order book.
"At last check there was $37billion (£30billion) still on offer before the end of 2022. We'd like to see the group manage a win rate in the low double digits with a relatively large slice of that business funnelling through to the order book."
Three months ago, Petrofac announced that net losses widened to £147million last year, compared to a deficit of £144.75million in 2020.
Serious Fraud Office investigation
A big chunk of the latest losses followed a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into bribery in the Middle East.
Petrofac also said that its revenues slipped to £2.304billion in 2021, as against £3.076billion previously.
The firm's order backlog fell to £3billion at the end of last year, compared to £3.77billion at the close of 2020.
The group has 8,500 employees worldwide at locations including Aberdeen.
Last October, the SFO said it had secured the conviction of Petrofac for seven separate counts of failure to prevent bribery between 2011 and 2017.
The company pled guilty to failing to prevent former senior executives of the group from using agents to systematically bribe officials, to win oil contracts in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Petrofac admitted that senior executives paid £32million in bribes to corrupt the awarding of contracts worth around £2.6billion.
The company was ordered to pay confiscation of nearly £23million, was fined more than £47million and the SFO's costs of £7million.
FTSE 100
The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was up 18 points at 7,226 shortly after opening this morning, following Friday's 188-point leap as global stocks rallied.
Brent crude futures were flat at $113.13 a barrel.
Companies reporting today
- Full-year results: Polar Capital Holdings