Leighton reaffirms full year guidance for 2010
Leighton Holdings Ltd said on Tuesday that the company is right on track to reach its expected after tax full year profit of $A600 million and coupled with a total of $29 billion as total revenue.
Company chief executive Wal King is upbeat that all profit targets are within reach, including the $900 million net profit and $50 billion of work at hand, despite the fact that "we're still dealing with post GFC (global financial crisis) issues but, in the main, we are in the right part of the world with the right opportunities in front of us."
Mr King, however, said that some projects would be put on hold in Australia until the government revises the proposed super profits tax as he stressed that "the black cloud hanging over the resource business is the super tax and no one knows the answer of what will happen there."
He is hopeful though that the super profits tax would be modified along the way since many of its provisions could bring in a great cloud of uncertainty and investment risk and such situations "run completely across the concept of Australia being a very stable place to invest in."
At the same time, Mr King gave assurance that all existing project would continue since money have been invested already and operations were all set up.
The chief executive also revealed that Leighton would be finalising $2.5 billion and $3 billion mining contracts and extensions in Australia by the last part of July while the company is set to scout business possibilities in Africa in the event that the super profits tax is actually implemented.
Mr King added that Leighton is taking the opportunity to further invest in Indonesia and Mongolia as he expressed optimism that business operations in both countries would advance more due to the very low-cost environments, specifically in Mongolia.
He is particularly excited about Mongolia where "we now have $A2 billion worth of work there with the potential for that to increase over the period ahead by at least another billion dollars."
The company is also training its eyes in the Middle East and Mr King said that the area is "a moving target in terms of our confidence in the Middle East business, albeit we believe the worst is over in terms of a general collapse of market confidence in the Middle East."
He is confident that the next 12 months would give Leighton enough new work to underwrite its investment in the Middle East as he assured that the company is comfortable with its carrying value and position at this point, even discounting the possibility of any writedowns on their investments in the region.