“A challenging 2022” coming up says Lendlease
Social distancing protocols across construction sites has knocked 16 per cent in revenue off of listed developer and builder Lendlease’s end of year results. Despite ongoing site shutdowns and lower productivity globally the company has managed to return its books to a healthier position than the previous financial year.
Lendlease reported that statutory profit after tax reached $222 million for the period, following a $310 million loss in the 2020 financial year. Full year pre-tax operating profit was up 83 per cent, to $377 million, boosted by a 2.7 per cent gain in construction EBITDA profit thanks to the sale of its loss-making engineering and services businesses.
The result was also supported by reducing costs across overheads, employee expenses, and project expenditure. The figure, lower than market expectations of $390 million, lead to shares falling by 7 per cent to $11.71 in afternoon trade.
Newly-appointed global chief executive Tony Lombardo said the group was now looking to “reset market expectations”, with a full recovery not expected until 2024.
“Despite Covid impacts, profit recovered and the group made significant strategic progress,” Lombardo said. “[However] we expect the 2022 financial year to be the cyclical low point for both development production and profitability.”