SGH Ltd (formerly Seven Group Holdings) has revealed it is “excited” about the future of Boral after it released its first-half earning results.
SGH’s first-half results were supported by its full acquisition of Boral, which was completed last year. Its overall revenue of $5.5 billion was up two per cent, driven primarily by WesTrac, which offset “marginally lower revenue” at Boral and Coates.
SGH’s EBIT of $843 million was up 10 per cent, with Boral’s EBIT of $259m up 29 per cent, helping drive the growth in this area.
SGH managing director and chief executive officer Ryan Stokes spoke about Boral’s performance in the first-half results.
“SGH completed the acquisition of Boral early in the half, and I am particularly pleased with their continued progress on the performance journey to achieve mid-teen EBIT margins,” he said.
“We remain excited about the opportunities we have long identified for further improvement at Boral. We also welcomed a significant number of former Boral shareholders to continue participating in long-term value creation as SGH shareholders.
Boral’s revenue of $1.8 billion was marginally down for the first half partially because of lower sales volumes in residential construction and roading.
SGH identified Boral’s cost control, and “internal optimisation” were “instrumental” in delivering the EBIT increase and managing the variable market conditions.
Boral has started an investment programme to refresh its heavy mobile equipment fleet, it expects this to support production and reduce cost efficiencies.
SGH stated the robust infrastructure investment outlook, and a positive residential outlook supported by the National Housing Accord targets supported its outlook for Boral.
“We continue to see solid customer demand across our core sector exposures of Industrials and Energy. The outlook for these sectors, along with our strong HY25 result, gives us confidence in our full-year earnings guidance of high single-digit EBIT growth for FY25,” Stokes said.
“Together with the leaders of our exceptional businesses, our owner’s mindset underpins the productivity and performance improvement that enabled this strong result.
“I am also grateful for the efforts of the wider SGH team and their commitment to serving our customers and delivering outcomes.”