Worley lifts payout, profits after ‘dynamic’ year

Contracting giant Worley, which now has 40,000 working from home, has increased its dividend after a 13pc lift in net profit.

Worley CEO Chris Ashton.

Contracting giant Worley has increased its dividend payout after booking a 13 per cent lift in annual net profits to $171m.

Worley will pay a 25c a share dividend on the back of the result, unfranked, up from 15c a share at the end of last financial year.

The company said its net profit after tax and amortisation of intangible assets lifted 46 per cent through the year, to $252m, with revenue up 75 per cent to $11.25bn after the $4.6bn acquisition of Jacobs Engineering Group‘s energy, resources and chemicals business (ECR), completed in 2019.

Chief executive Chris Ashton said in a statement that despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the year had been one of the most “dynamic” in Worley’s history.

“We began the year having closed the transformative acquisition of ECR and have substantially completed the integration activities with the remainder being delivered as part of normal operations,” he said.

“We now have more than 40,000 people working from home and have continued to support over 180 critical energy, chemical and resource infrastructure sites around the world with modified site practices,” Mr Ashton said.

“We have focused on the things that we can control. The delivery of a notable underlying operating cash flow result of $881 million, the reduction in our DSO2 by 13 days over the last six months, and $945 million of renewed and additional financial facilities in April 2020 mean we have a stronger balance sheet than 12 months ago.”

Worley said the coronavirus had made the medium to long term outlook more difficult to predict, but said its global reach and the diversification of its business through the ECR acquisition meant it was more resilient than most to the global economic downturn.

Its energy and chemicals services businesses reported aggregate revenue of $4.95bn and an underlying profits of $492m, with its mining and metals services division booking revenue of $1.18bn and $60m in underlying earnings.

Worley shares were up 51c to $9.62 in early trading on Wednesday.