The mining services industry appears to be more profitable than ever, with three of Australia’s top mining services companies posting record results in the 2023–24 financial year (FY24).
Perenti reported record revenue of $3.34 million, record underlying earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $314.2 million and record net-profit after tax (NPAT) of $165.8 million, generating $184.5 million of free cash flow after accounting for capital expenditure.
“The strong free cash flow has allowed us to further reduce leverage, recommence dividends, and continue our buyback, all whilst maintaining investment in earnings growth during FY24,” Perenti managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Norwell said.
“During recent years, our business has built significant scale and diversity across our divisions. Our scale and diversity allows for fluctuations related to operations or capital requirements to be smoothed out as projects move through the different stages of development, operational ramp up and mine closure.
“This ultimately allows for greater consistency in earnings and reliable free cash flow generation.”
Perenti has posted a $0.04 per share final dividend, taking the full FY24 dividend to $0.06, which represents 34.1 per cent of the underlying FY24 NPAT. Given its dividend performance, the company is now targeting a payout range of 30–40 per cent of the underlying NPAT in the years ahead.
Macmahon’s revenue climbed 6.6 per cent in FY24 to a record $2 billion, with the company also posting a record underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of $351.7m, up 13.9 per cent from FY23.
This enabled Macmahon to declare a final dividend of $0.006 per share, boosting the year-on-year total dividend by 40 per cent to $0.0105 per share.
“Macmahon has delivered another year of growth in revenue and underlying earnings, with the FY24 financial result marking the eighth consecutive year we have met or exceeded market guidance,” Macmahon managing director and CEO Michael Finnegan said.
Macmahon said it has an order book of $4.6 billion and a tender pipeline of $21.4 billion. The company is targeting between $2.4 billion and $2.5 billion revenue in FY25, with $2 billion of that already secured.
Monadelphous reported a record $2.03 billion of FY24 revenue, up 11 per cent from FY23, with a record year for the company’s maintenance and industrial services division.
FY24 NPAT was up 16.2 per cent to $62.2 million and $187.7 million of cash flow was generated from operations.
Monadelphous declared a final dividend of $0.33 per share, taking the full-year dividend to $0.58 per share, an 18.4 per cent increase from FY23.
“Prospects remain positive in resources and energy, with Australian iron ore miners anticipated to continue investing, several new gas construction projects progressing, decarbonisation projects making up an increasing share of capital expenditure forecasts and the pipeline of renewal energy opportunities expanding,” Monadelphous managing director Zoran Bebic said.
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