Coffey International Ltd has announced Friday that it is projecting lower revenues in 2009-2010 following declines in monthly incomes since January as delays, slow-downs and cancellations marred the Sydney-based company's pipeline of projects.

According to AAP, the professional consultancy firm revealed that its monthly fee revenues could dip by up to 10 percent in the second half of 2009/10, which would be a far cry from earnings the company has realised during the previous period of the financial year.

Coffey said that most of the delays or cancellation had hit across several parts of the company's business "to the extent that the diversification strategy previously implemented has not been sufficiently able to counter the impact of these events."

As a result, the company is projecting that total earnings for the 12 months to June 2010 would only be about $45 million to $50 million at the maximum, which would be a bit lower than reported operating EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $55.98 million in 2008/09 and $49.77 million in 2007/08.

Coffey managing director Roger Olds said that the revenue declines were mostly the results of tentative spending as the economy recovered while the company fended off any lay offs and held on to the number of its employees, adding that their forecast deliberately bypassed potential goodwill impairment impacts which are hard to establish for now.

Mr Olds is optimistic though that Coffey's revenues would recover pretty soon, owing to the company's strong pipeline of major projects across the globe, as he stressed that recent economic momentum "will benefit our business and that this is a timing issue as to the speed at which the recovery occurs in multiple locations and sectors."

He lamented that the New South Wales government's decision to put off the Sydney Metro Project this year had greatly offset Coffey's revenue standings, adding that other factors conspired in slashing the company's profits such as the much tempered federal government's stimulus spending, the absence of private investment in the property sector and the sluggish recovery of the mining industry.