Quake contracts mask regional slowdown
An increase in work resulting from the Christchurch earthquakes is hiding a slowdown in regional New Zealand, Fulton Hogan says.
An increase in work resulting from the Christchurch earthquakes is hiding a slowdown in regional New Zealand, Fulton Hogan says.
Nick Miller, managing director of the Australasian civil contracting company, said the challenging economic conditions had seen work outside the main centres start to dry up.
However, he said helping to rebuild Christchurch's infrastructure was likely to be a good source of work for the next four years.
Helping to repair Queensland's roads was also a promising potential source of income, Mr Miller said.
About 78% of the state's roading network was damaged in the floods that engulfed the region in late 2010 and early 2011, he said.
Some contracts to repair it had already been let, while others were coming up, Mr Miller said.
Mr Miller's comments coincided with the release of Fulton's Hogan's annual review, which showed the company increased revenue in the last year of 14%, while its operating surplus rose 13%.
In his chairman's report to shareholders that was part of the review, Ed Johnson announced that revenue for 2010/11 exceeded $NZ2.4 billion, with a consolidated operating surplus of $NZ104.5 million.
He also noted the results were influenced by the significant investment and capital restructuring decisions approved last year in relation to the acquisition of Pioneer Road Services (PRS) in Australia and the buy-back of Shell’s shareholding.
“Fulton Hogan has committed significant focus on putting key elements of a long term strategy for sustainable shareholder value in place,” Mr Johnson said.
“The acquisition of PRS and its first full year of financial contribution to the company helped realise our strategic objectives of increasing our presence in the Australia, with 59% of revenue now generated from our Australian operations.”
The Australian side of the business last year raked in $1.5 billion of sales, a significant increase from the $180 million it generated eight years ago, Mr Miller said.
Colin Williscroft
Thu, 29 Sep 2011
Thu, 29 Sep 2011
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Quake contracts mask regional slowdown
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