Pretoria - Bateman Engineering grew new orders by 210 percent to more than $540 million (R4 billion) in the six months to December, the South African-born global mining engineering and project management group announced yesterday.
The company, which is listed on London's Alternative Investment Market, said the award of three major projects, including a $137 million expansion of the Richards Bay coal terminal, contributed to its robust order book for the interim period.
The company also won the $258 million Lumwana copper contract in Zambia and a $35 million project in India for Hindustan Zinc, a subsidiary of mining major Vedanta Resources.
New orders for the six months significantly exceeded those for the full 2005/06 financial year.
Sivi Gounden, Bateman's chief executive, said yesterday that the Indian contract was remarkable because the company had only opened its office in that country in July.
This contract had enabled Bateman to accelerate the growth of its Indian operation to not only give it access to a very vibrant mining sector but to a source of cost-effective services, equipment and material, Gounden said.
"In an industry dominated not only by heightened activity but by a severe shortage of engineering resources, entry into this market gives us excellent access to a highly skilled workforce to further strengthen our global spread of expertise and technological resources, a critical component of our successful growth," he said.
Rick Menell, Bateman's chairman, said the healthy order book resulted from several strategic initiatives.
One of these was further expansion into other commodity markets, including a re-entry into energy-producing commodities, such as coal and uranium, whose growth dynamics were different to the general minerals and metals market.
Details about the order book were included in Bateman's record interim results.
Revenue came in at $236.3 million, up 54 percent from a year earlier, while attributable profit rose 39 percent to $7.16 million.
Profit after tax from continuing operations jumped 37 percent to $6.8 million, and diluted earnings a share increased by almost 37 percent to 18.82 US cents.
Gounden said Bateman clearly enjoyed an excellent first half and, with the strength of its order book and the boom in the resources sector anticipated to continue, it expected to match or better market expectations for the full year.
"Market conditions remain favourable, our brand recognition, growing reputation and improved resources are enabling big wins, our global expansion is taking root, new markets are being addressed and we are filling senior manager positions.
"On this basis, we believe that we are positioned to deliver in excess of $1 billion in revenue in the medium term," he said.
Chief financial officer Jonathan Ben-Cnaan told Reuters that Bateman was looking at "bolt-on acquisitions" in Australia and Russia, and could buy more than one company before the end of the year.