Shares in Leighton Holdings rebounded solidly yesterday after the company delivered on a promise made in May to reveal some big contracts wins.
In a statement to the ASX the contracting giant revealed that it had picked up $1.5 billion in new contracts, which will go someway to re-establishing the faith in the group that was dented after the mixed update in May.
The news takes to $2.3 billion the value of new work picked up by the company and its various arms since the start of May.
The third quarter update in May revealed profits for the June 30 year would be a bit lower than normal, while 9 month revenue and profits were adversely impacted by the stronger dollar.
“Work in hand at 31 March 2010 stood at $37.5bn which was negatively impacted by $3.6 bn from exchange rate effects, up from $36.5bn at the same time last year. New contracts and variations awarded during the March quarter totalled $2.5bn. Since March 2010, an additional $1.8bn of work has been won and the Group is in a preferred position on over $6bn of projects which should be awarded in the next few months,” the company said in the May 17 statement.
The shares fell sharply, down $2.12 on the day from the high of $34.28.
Yesterday, after the update (which followed a steady stream of contract win announcements to the ASX), Leighton shares jumped $1.29 to a day’s high of $33.69 before ending up 70c, or 2.1% at $33.10.
In yesterday’s statement, the company said it had won a six year contract extension worth $1.1 billion to expand mining services at MSJ coal mine in Indonesia for PT Mahakam Sumber Jaya (MSJ).
Under the contract PT Leighton Contractors Indonesia, a division of Leighton Asia, will expand its overburden removal and coal mining operations to more than eight million tonnes of coal per year.
(In the March quarter Thiess, one of its contracting arms, won an $800 million overburden stripping contract in the Bowen Basin coalfields in Queensland.)
In NSW, Thiess Services was awarded a $405 million contract from BHP Billiton to undertake remediation works at the Hunter River Remediation Project.
The project involves remediation of river sediments affected by industrial activities of the former Newcastle Steelworks at Mayfield and is due for completion in 2012.
Thiess has been involved with the Hunter River Remediation project for more than 12 months and the next phase includes purpose-built facilities on the former steelworks site to immobilise contaminants in sediments.
Leighton Asia managing director, Hamish Tyrwhitt, said the contract win had increased Leighton Asia’s work in hand to more than $7 billion.
”Our operation in Indonesia has been an outstanding performer for the past few years and we expect to continue to perform strongly in both mining and infrastructure,” Mr Tyrwhitt said.
Since early May announcements to the ASX have detailed a further $800 million in new contracts or extensions on various projects for Leighton.
