Private, family-owned roading, infrastructure and resources company Fulton Hogan is setting the foundation for expansion, delivering a strong half-year result and has more than $2.8 billion of forward orders in New Zealand and Australia.
The company's revenue, for six months of trading to December, was ahead of budget.
Profit before tax was up 144% to $92.8 million, debt of $138.9 million was repaid and the company had refinanced about $155 million of its banking facility, from strong cashflow and continued sales of non-core assets, managing director Nick Miller said.
''The company has performed solidly, and its results, along with a significant forward order book, are helping position the company to move into a new growth phase, once an ongoing share buy-back from former cornerstone shareholder Shell is completed later this year,'' he said in a statement yesterday.
He said the company's ''new growth phase'' would be over the next 18 months.
In New Zealand, there had been increasing workloads in infrastructure and regional businesses, plus strengthening in the economies of Auckland and Christchurch.
In Australia, profit had been driven by completing seven airport projects, the extension of two maintenance contracts and securing ''a number'' of major port and water contracts, Mr Miller said.
Forty percent of the Pacific Highway project, from Sapphire to Woolgoola, was completed and open to traffic, which ''significantly reduced risk'' to Fulton Hogan's Australian construction business.
Mr Miller noted all but one of seven Australian projects previously classed as ''distressed'' had now been completed.
