Investors were not impressed after the company revealed that apart from the $14.3 million contribution from joint venture operations, its wholly-owned operations barely made a profit over the past six months. Consequently its shares dropped 16c to finish at 98c.

With Clough's order book totalling $1.6 billion and work in hand at around $853 million, the company however remains bullish about its future. It points to the oil and gas sector, where the outlook for new work remained strong.

Clough recorded a pre-tax profit of $17 million on sales of $272.7 million for the past six months. Analyst are tipping full year profits of up to $33.6 million for the Perth-based engineering group.