Monadelphous Fiscal Year Net Profit Up 14% To A$95.1 Million

Heavy investment in Australian mining, energy and infrastructure projects helped lift full-year net profit at engineering group Monadelphous Group Ltd. (MND.AU) 14% on year to A$95.1 million, the company said Monday.

Monadelphous, which is working on major projects such as Woodside Petroleum Ltd.'s (WPL.AU) Pluto gas export plant, BHP Billiton Ltd.'s (BHP) Yandi iron ore mine, and CITIC Pacific Ltd.'s (0267.HK) Sino Iron project, said it saw further opportunities over the coming year.

Australia had A$173.54 billion in mining and energy projects committed to start up as of April 2011, according to government figures.

"We are confident of securing a number of significant opportunities in the first half of the new financial year which will underpin strong ongoing revenue flows," said Managing Director Rob Velletri.

However, he said the timing of projects was a short-term risk and the company would have to invest in keeping skilled workers as labor supply tightens.

The net profit result was slightly better than the A$94.0 million consensus of four analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires, and a 13% rise in revenues to A$1.44 billion from A$1.28 billion converted to a larger rise in net profit despite the ongoing cost pressures around major resources projects.

Monadelphous said it won A$650 million in new contracts over the year to June 30 and has picked up a further A$350 million since. The company has net cash of A$129.5 million, it said.

The company proposed a final dividend on 55 cents, compared to 48 cents at the same period last year.

-By David Fickling, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]