Foster’s reports loss of $89 million, Seek profit up 9%: Midday Roundup

Foster’s says it is confident that it will return to long-term growth after recording an $89 million loss for the year, following a $464.4 million loss in the previous corresponding period.

The company announced underlying profit fell by 8.7%, while revenue from continuing operations dropped by 5.4% to $2.4 billion.

It has also announced shares for a $500 million share buyback.

“Foster’s expects that the rate of decline in the Australian beer category will moderate in the first half of fiscal 2012,” the company said.

“The cider category is expected to remain in strong growth, and craft beer and international premium beer are likely to lead the beer category and continue positive mix trends.”

Seek profit rises 9%

Seek has announced a 9% rise in full year net profit to $97.69 million.

The company announced that net profit excluded one-off items including transaction costs for the purchase of Hong Kong-based Jobs DB. Chief executive Andrew Bassat has said the business is well placed to benefit from the continued move of jobs ads from print to online.

“SEEK is well-positioned versus its online peers and particularly against print as growth in online job ads has significantly outpaced growth in print job ads,” Bassat said in a statement.

“This reflects the ongoing structural migration from print to online with online now capturing approximately 83% of all job ads.”

Bassat also said he expects the company to perform well “despite the volatility in macroeconomic conditions”.

Shares higher on strong Wall Street lead

The Australian sharemarket has opened slightly higher this morning after a solid lead from Wall Street.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index rose 30 points or 0.75% to 4112.7 at 12.10 AEST, while the Australian dollar rose to $1.04c.

AMP shares rose 1.22% to $4.16, while Commonwealth Bank shares lifted 1.05% to $46.38. Westpac rose 1.76% to $19.70 as ANZ also rose 0.98% to $19.49.

In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37 points or 0.34% to 10,854.65.

Origin profit falls 70%

Origin Energy has recorded a 70% decline in net profit, from $612 million to $186 million, with the company attributing the decline to higher impartment charges.

“Based on Origin’s current assessment of operations and prevailing market conditions, Origin anticipates Underlying EBITDA to increase by around 35% and Underlying Profit to increase by around 30% for financial year 2012 when compared with the prior year,” it said.

Origin experts profit to grow by 30% in the next year.

Flight Centre profit remains flat

Flight Centre has recorded an annual net profit for $139.81 million, roughly the same as last year’s, although the company expects 10% growth in the next year.

“Generally, FLT’s corporate travel businesses performed strongly globally, as the company benefited from its continued expansion in the sector and as the overall market continued to recover from the 2008/09 downturn,” Flight Centre said in a statement.

“In leisure travel, sales volumes were generally good with strongest growth achieved in Australia and Canada, where market conditions remained reasonably stable.”