Hellaby Holdings maintained a dividend in line with last year despite its trading profit falling by 34% to $19 million in the six months ended December.
The company reported a 2% fall in revenue to $380 million in the period and its reported profit fell 65% to $4.7 million.
Earnings per share fell 61% to 5.1c but the tax-paid dividend of 9cps was unchanged from the previous corresponding period.
Chairman Steve Smith said the board remained confident of a strong second-half performance and expected a full-year result broadly in line with the record result achieved last year.
Three of the four business groups experienced "soft trading'', affected by contract timing and slow economic conditions.
The balance sheet was strong with conservative gearing at 29.7% compared to 28.3% at the same time last year, well below the target of 45%, he said.
As a consequence, Hellaby remained well-positioned to fund further growth opportunities.
Hellaby's recently appointed managing director, Alan Clarke, said while it was clearly disappointing the first-half result was down, he was impressed with the calibre of the business and management teams in the group.
Among the sector reports given by Mr Clarke, the resource services group disappointed with a profit of $4.7 million, down 61% on the pcp.
The result was affected by the timing of major refinery shutdown contracts. The business had an attractive investment future for Hellaby, even though the weak oil and gas market meant clients in Australia, the Americas and the Middle East postponed planned maintenance and scheduled refinery shutdowns.
The automotive group had sales of $126.5 million, up 27.5% and a trading profit of $13.2 million, up 7%.
"The automotive group is a delight. It is well-managed and the performance is predictable with good margins and it has grown well in its core business.''
However, Mr Clarke was not so optimistic about the footwear group, which includes Hannahs and Number One Shoes.
Sales of $66.6 million were down 2.8% on the pcp and the group reported a trading loss of $200,000, down from the $900,000 profit in the pcp.
Hannahs had some same-store sales growth but Number One Shoes fared less well with negative year-on-year growth, he said.
The footwear group was considered to be non-core and Hellaby would sell the footwear businesses at the appropriate time.
