Revenue for the 2003-04 financial year grew 26% to $1.1 billion, while net profit after tax jumped 33% to 29.1 million.
As previously forecast, the second-half performance was stronger than the first six months of the 2004 fiscal year, with revenue approaching $600 million and earnings before interest, tax and amortisation of $30 million, the company said. The order book as at June 30, 2004, stood at $2.3 billion.
“Our businesses continue to secure new projects and retain existing long-term contracts,” said chief executive officer Richard Leupen. “Over 70% of the order book now consists of long-term contracts generating recurring revenue, which supports the group’s underlying revenue outlook.”
The company has already locked in more than $800 million of work for 2004-2005.
“Bidding activity across all of United Group remains active, and our current order book underpins future revenues,” said Leupen. “Due to the group’s current order book and business mix, earnings will again be skewed to the second half of 2004-05, as occurred in the current year.
“Our medium-term goal remains to increase earnings by 10-15% per year.”
The company declared a fully franked final dividend of 10c per share and a fully franked special dividend of 10c per share. This takes total dividends for the year to 28c a share, a 17% increase from the previous year.
