AusGroup swings into the black with Q3 net profit of A$102,000

Published Wed, May 12, 2021 · 05:35 PM

AUSTRALIAN construction engineering company AusGroup on Wednesday posted a net profit of A$102,000 (S$105,800) for the third quarter ended March 31, reversing a loss of A$3.2 million from the previous year.

Revenue over the period was down 23.3 per cent to A$50.7 million from A$66.7 million in the preceding year. The drop in revenue reflects the slower-than-expected recovery from the impact of Covid-19 throughout the year, said the group in its preliminary financial statements. It added that this was a result of the postponement of client determined "non-critical" projects.

Earnings per share for the quarter was zero, compared with the loss per share of 0.11 cent in 2020. Net asset value per share stood at 1.3 cents as at March 31, versus 1.1 cents as at June 30, 2020. No dividend was declared for the quarter due to the "working capital requirements of the group".

While the impact of the pandemic has led to the delay in securing new contracts, the group said that its pipeline of projects is increasing, with more requests from clients looking to focus on the full range of both critical and non-critical core work programmes that were postponed due to the Covid-19 virus.

"This return to more normal activity levels is expected to underpin the business objectives in the short term and into Q1 FY2022 and Q2 FY2022, with core projects expected to grow in scale and complexity to provide further opportunities for organic growth in the energy and process sectors," said the group.

The main priority for the group in the short term is to focus on its core strengths of providing multi-disciplinary services of mechanical, scaffolding, insulation, refractory and fabrication services. This is in addition to increasing the port and marine operations, given that this segment is migrating from a commercialisation phase to providing core services in the fuel sale and storage market and the woodchip market.