Basil Read expects to return to profitability

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Basil Read says it expects its interim results for the six months ended June 2015 to indicate a return to profitability.

Small-cap construction company Basil Read (BSR) on Tuesday said it expected its interim results for the six months ended June 2015 to indicate a return to profitability.

Basil Read said headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the period would be at least 100% higher at 145.74c per share compared with the headline loss per share of 145.74c in the year-earlier period.

In its 2014 interim results‚ the company said performance had been poor as a result of the slow roll-out of infrastructure spend‚ endemic labour unrest‚ particularly in the mining sector‚ and a difficult contractual environment.

It said changes to its executive management team had contributed to the challenges faced and the group had grappled with a number of loss-making contracts in the construction division and difficult trading conditions in the engineering division.

However‚ in June 2015 management said it saw brighter prospects for the company based on various factors‚ including the completion of provisioning to all loss-making contracts.

The troubled contracts were the N12 Tom Jones project in Gauteng and the Nata to Pandamatenga Road in Botswana.

The company also said it planned to maintain the order book‚ which stood at R10.5bn.

Last year on this date‚ the stock was trading at R6.52.

At 9.49am‚ Basil Read was trading at R4.50‚ valuing the company at about R593m.


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