Air conditioning and refrigeration company Hastie Group Ltd has reported a strong rise in underlying earnings and maintained its full year earnings guidance.
The company said that while net profit for the December half year was $9.99 million, down from $11.32 million in the previous corresponding period, on an underlying basis, earnings jumped almost 65 per cent to $10.15 million.
Underlying EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) rose to $18.22 million from $11.78 million.
Earnings per share jumped by almost 51 per cent to 8.9c from 5.9c, and an interim dividend will be paid of 5.5c a share.
Hastie said it was confident of achieving EBIT of between $38 million and $41 million for the year to June 30.
The previous corresponding period included $4 million from the release of funds from a provision.
Investors understood the real story and the shares were hardly touched in yesterday’s sell down, easing 6c to $3.10, compared to the recent all time high of $3.35
Revenue rose 63 per cent to $353.9 million.
Chairman Trevor Bourne said the outlook for fiscal 2008 was also positive, with the company’s United Arab Emirates operations expected to contribute $5 million to earnings.
