Southern Cross H1 profit drops to $3.3m

The cost of integrating three business acquisitions has helped shave $3.9 million off the interim net profit result for Southern Cross Electrical Engineering.

The Naval Base-based company today reported a net profit after tax for the six months to the end of December 2009 of $3.3 million, down from $7.2 million booked in the previous corresponding period.

Underlying net profit before business acquisition costs was $4.8 million, as forecast last month.

During the period, Southern Cross acquired Hindle Electrics, K.J. Johnson & Co and Oceanic Industries, which will all help to expand the company's oil and gas and infrastructure capacity.

Expenses from the business acquisitions were reported as $1.5 million in the report.

"FY10 is a challenging year for [Southern Cross] due to delayed commencement of some projects," chairman Frank Tomasi said.

"This is expected to turnaround significantly in FY11 given the number of large scale projects that are due to commence in the energy, iron ore and gold markets which makes coming years look very positive."

The directors of Southern Cross declared an interim dividend of two cents and had $16.3 million cash at the end of the period.