News from Listed Construction Companies

Group Five

Construction conglomerate Group Five shares fell by 2.8% in trading after outlining its full-year loss estimate. The share has slumped 23% this year. The group will report a per-share net loss within a range of R2.18 to R2.43 for the year ended 30 June 2011, the Johannesburg- based company indicated.

Excluding one-time items, earnings per share probably dropped as much as 45% to R3.37. Earlier the company in a statement issued on 5 July that it would probably report a full-year loss of R2.52 to R2.80. Analysts said that the announcement was confirmation that the construction sector was struggling.

Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon

WBHO, the listed construction and engineering group indicated that difficult trading conditions knocked its financial performance. It is expected that both its headline earnings and earnings per share will be between 15% and 25% lower than the previous year. The company also reported that the Competition Commission was in the process of assessing the submissions of the company and the outcome would probably result in the imposition of an administrative penalty. It was of the view that indications were that a penalty amount would only be known next year. The company indicated that its financial results for the year ended 30 June would be released on 5 September 2011.  

Murray & Roberts

Clough, one of the Murray & Roberts trading arms in Australia is selling its foreign based operations to focus on its Australian projects. Murray & Roberts owns 62% of Clough which is listed in Australia. Clough is selling its foreign based marine construction division for $133million to the Malaysian energy group Sapura-Crest Petroleum and will be using the proceeds to relieve debt and to finance the focus Clough is placing on oil gas and mineral exploration in Australia. Murray & Roberts indicate that marine construction operations required considerable capital and were an extremely competitive sector.

Pieter Rautenbach