Transport group Toll Holdings says conditions for the firm have stabilised, although the outlook remains challenging given its relatively flat profit result.
Net profit rose one per cent to $281 million for the 12 months to June 30 from $279 million a year earlier, Melbourne-based Toll said in a statement on Thursday.
“The outlook is challenging to predict, although generally we would say that conditions look to have stabilised, at least for Toll,” outgoing chief executive Paul Little said in the statement.
“We will continue to focus on our strategic growth path, achieving the necessary scale in Toll Global Forwarding, incrementally improving the performance of Footwork Express in Japan and continuing to grow our exposure to the strong resources sector.
“We have a strong competitive position in the Australian market, which we remain focussed on, while also increasing our involvement in the logistics tasks associated with the fast growing online sector of the retail market.”
Revenue increased 18 per cent to $8.23 billion.
The company will pay a final fully franked dividend of 13.5 cents per share, the same as the previous year.
Toll shares rose 37 cents, or 8.56 per cent, to $4.69 on Thursday.
Mr Little said the result was “very credible” given challenging market conditions in the past year.
He said the company had benefited from acquisitions and organic growth but had been impacted by macro-economic conditions.
“A very challenging global economic environment … has been exacerbated by a number of tragic natural disasters,” Mr Little said.
“We have continued to make good progress in growing our range of businesses despite the weak conditions affecting a number of our operations.”
Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were up 7.3 per cent at $436.4 million, the company reported on Thursday.
Cash flow from its operations rose 15.2 per cent in the year to June 30, to $651 million.
The company said growth had been strong across most of its divisions, with particularly pleasing results from its resources operation, despite the impact of bad weather.
“Growth opportunities arising from both the mining and oil and gas sectors are very encouraging with a number of key contract wins to support long-term earnings growth,” Mr Little said.
