Neptune Marine books maiden FY profit

A booming oil and gas industry has steered engineering company Neptune Marine Ltd out of the red to post its maiden full year net profit after tax of $7.4 million.

The Perth-based company today said the positive net result was up from the previous year's net loss of $6.4 million.

Normalised net profit after tax for the 2008 financial year was $10.9 million, after IFRS adjustments, with the majority of that coming from the second half of the year.

The company said the result effectively represents a $17 million turn around on the comparative FY07 financial performance.

Revenue over the period skyrocketed 560 per cent to $86.7 million which Neptune said was largely due to the significant organic growth recorded across the group, supported by consistent growth from international acquisitions.

A successful capital raising project that generated $61 million helped drive Neptune's expansion within Western Australia, as well as Europe and South East Asia.

Managing director Christian Lange said the company already has more than $50 million worth of contracts confirmed for the first half of fiscal 2009.