Capral Limited, Australia’s largest extruder and distributor of aluminium products, has released their financial results for the 6 months ending 30 June 2023 (1H23).

Commenting on Capral’s 1H23 results and their outlook for FY23, managing director and CEO, Tony Dragicevich said, “Capral has delivered a strong result in the first half of 2023 by playing to our unmatched strengths across the construction and industrial sectors.

“Capral has enhanced its diverse industry exposure, especially in transport and commercial construction. Together, with a good pipeline of work continuing in residential building, this reflected in our overall volume remaining strong.

“We have the ability to more effectively partner with customers to provide bespoke and innovative intermediary solutions through the largest footprint of manufacturing sites and distribution centres in Australia. This has allowed us to create additional higher margin solutions to generate a favourable sales mix, and thereby maintain profitability at close to record levels.

“Capral has invested for the long term throughout the last few years, allowing the company to be well placed in the sector to address, among other things, the forthcoming changes around energy efficiency in the National Construction Code, which will affect the Australian construction sector. As Australia’s only ASI certified aluminium extruder, and leading the industry on making its aluminium value chain more sustainable, Capral will keep building on its strengths and optimise its supply chain to meet increased demand for sustainable aluminium products due to regulation and evolving customer needs.

“Although conditions are softening in the second half of 2023, Capral’s FY23 earnings guidance has improved due to its exposure across several resilient sectors, and to leverage its higher-margin, value-added services such as pre-machining, semi-fabrication, and helping customers optimise and streamline their processes to create bespoke solutions that meet their advanced fabrication needs.”

Capral Half Year 2023 results highlights

  • Volume 35,600 tonnes down 2% on prior period supported by continuing strong market conditions
  • Underlying EBITDA of $31.7m (1H22:$31.6m) and Underlying EBIT of $20.7m (1H22:$21.0m) were on par with prior period
  • Net Profit After Tax of $16.6m (1H22:$22.2m) with no additional income tax benefit recognised this half (1H22:$3.5m)
  • Underlying Earnings Per Share at $0.96
  • Strong balance sheet with net cash of $41.2m
  • Interim dividend declared at $0.20 per share, fully franked (1H22:$0.20)
  • Share buy-back announced on 3 August 2023
  • Conditions expected to soften in second half
  • FY23 earnings guidance lifted to top-end of guidance range provided on 24 February 2023, with Underlying EBITDA around $58m and Underlying NPAT around $30m