UPDATE 1-Bronco Drilling swings to Q4 loss
* Q4 loss of $0.75 a share
* Q4 profit, ex-items, $0.17/shr
* Utilization up to 83 pct vs 73 pct, a year earlier
March 11 (Reuters) - Bronco Drilling Co Inc (BRNC.O) swung to a fourth-quarter loss, hurt by a goodwill impairment charge and an investment write-down.
The provider of contract oil and gas land drilling and workover services posted a quarterly net loss of $19.8 million, compared with a net profit of $6.4 million, a year earlier.
Excluding a goodwill impairment charge of $24.3 million and a $15.3 million write-down of Bronco's investment in privately held Challenger Ltd, it earned 17 cents a share.
Revenue rose 10 percent to $76 million.
Analysts were expecting the onshore driller to report earnings, before items, of 16 cents a share, on revenue of $70.8 million, according to Reuters Estimates.
Shares of the Edmond, Oklahoma-based company closed at $3.96 Tuesday on Nasdaq.
For the alerts, double-click. [ID:nWNAB2753] (Reporting by Shradhha Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
