Engineering and construction company United Group Ltd
(ASX:UGL) says it expects to maintain its full year earnings guidance despite an unsuccessful outcome relating to a dispute with RailCorp over the manufacture and delivery of railcars.
The company announced today that it has received an interim arbitration decision on a claim involving outer suburban railcars that service the Sydney passenger rail network and the Hunter Railcars that service the Hunter Region.
United says it has not been successful in its entire claim and will record a loss on the outer suburban and Hunter Railcar contracts.
The company says the outcome however will result in a positive cash input in fiscal 2010.
United says taking into account the combination of recent contract wins, strong trading conditions and a number of steps to mitigate this outcome, the company expects to maintain its previously stated earnings guidance for fiscal 2010 with earnings significantly weighted in the second half of the year.
United Group recorded net profit of $142.4 million in 2009.
Australian based investment company Premier Investments Ltd (ASX:PMV) has almost doubled its earnings for the year after today reporting a 98 per cent rise in net profit for the year to July 25 of $82.7 million.
The company says the result was underpinned by a better than expected result for Just Group, despite tough economic conditions.
Just Group’s sales rose 4 per cent to $844.9 million for the year.
Premier Investments declared a final dividend of 38 cents a share taking the total for the year to 75 cents.
Chairman Solomon Lew says the combination of Just Group’s solid result and the board’s commitment to capital management initiatives means that investors in Premier will have had the opportunity to receive up to 75 cents per share in dividends for fiscal 2009.
The company says Just Group trading for the first seven weeks since the end of the financial year has been in line with the improving trend of the second half of 2009 and trading ahead of budget.
Premier says that while the current retail environment appears to be gaining strength, Premier is cautious and conservative in its outlook for fiscal 2010.
Looking at the past five years Premier Investments profit highlight was in 2007.
Diversified energy company New Hope Corporation Ltd (ASX:NHC) has posted a sharp rise in full year earnings after the sale of its New Saraji project to BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance.
The company recorded total net profit after tax and non regular items for the year to July 31 of $1.95 billion boosted by the sale of the New Saraji project in September 2008.
The result compares to a profit of $90.68 million the year before.
Not including the sale of the project, net profit after tax came to $262.3 million up 189 per cent on the year before, while net profit from its coal mining, port, and other operations to $150.5 million for the year to July 31.
Chairman Robert Millner says the result was driven by an 11.7 per cent increase in total coal sales to 4.972 million tonnes with export coal sales up 19.9 per cent to 3.868 million tonnes in combination with the higher domestic and export coal prices during the past year.
The company says however, with the sharp decrease in export coal prices resulting from the world economic downturn in late 2008 and early 2009, it is likely that an earnings decline will eventuate in 2010 from normal operations, despite higher production and sales.
New Hope’s best net profit over the past five years was $447.7 million in 2005.
Junior telco SP Telemedia Ltd (ASX:SOT) has reported a 194 per cent increase in net profit for the year to July 31.
Net profit for 12 months came to $17.7 million, up from a net loss of $18.9 million in the previous year.
The company which trades under the names of TPG and Soul had previously forecast net profit of $16 million.
Revenue came to $481 million up from $446 million recorded in the same period a year ago.
The company says continued growth of the business has been underpinned by broadband subscribers.
The group’s strong profit growth is forecast to continue and the directors have forecast revenue of $460 million, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $130 million, and earnings before interest and tax of $71 million.
SP Telemedia declared a final dividend of one cent a share. SP Telemedia posted a loss in 2008 after profits the four years previous.
