This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
WATPAC has gone from bad to worse, posting a full year statutory loss of $56.9 million, due to impairments and restructuring of its civil and mining business, which offset gains in construction.
Watpac’s latest results is worse than FY17’s loss of $31.4 million. Revenue declined to $1.08 billion compared to $1.108 billion in FY17. Although the construction business recorded a substantially improved underlying profit of $20.6 million for the reporting period, it was offset the civil & mining business.
More than $1.45 billion in new work was secured during the period, with the strategic diversification of the group’s construction activities contributing to a circa 30% increase in work-in-hand over the 12 months.
Chair Peter Watson said the reported loss was disappointing given the improved performance of the construction business.
“The group’s FY18 financial performance has been impacted by issues associated with our civil & mining business and this has led to an unsatisfactory result for our shareholders.
“Despite this we have seen significant improvement in profitability within our construction division, which has demonstrated successful strategy execution during the financial year,” he added.
Watson said moving forward Watpac’s civil & mining business will have a more targeted focus within a sector that is continuing to show a strong pipeline of new work opportunities.
Managing director Martin Monro said the group enters the 2019 financial year with nearly $2 billion of work-in-hand and a strong sector positioning.
“Significant investment has been made to improve the quality of our workbook, which now reflects disciplined tendering practices and key sector focus.
“Our focus has been on enhancing the quality of our workbook and developing a plan for our civil & mining business, and I believe we now have the right capabilities, resources and structures in place to deliver the results our shareholders expect.” Monro said.
Australian Property Journal
