Opus International, one of the few successful new listings on the stock exchange in recent years, said it was on track to meet its prospectus forecast.
Chairman Basil Logan told shareholders in Wellington at the company's inaugural meeting since listing last year, he was confident the company was
on track to achieve forecasts despite the prospect of recession in the United States and elsewhere.
The first quarter revenue and surplus had been on track.
The engineering consulting company is in full-scale expansion mode with plans to increase staff to 3500 from 2500 by 2011 with a commensurate one third lift in revenue and profit.
In the past five years, revenue at the former Ministry of Works which was privatised in 1988, has doubled to $293 million. The company is forecast to lift revenue this year to $315m and have a net profit of $16m.
Opus shares listed in October just as sharemarkets around the world were upset by the sub-prime and credit crunch crises.
Opus listed at a 21 per cent premium to its $1.65 issue price and yesterday was still 6 per cent ahead of its October 29 price, whereas the NZSX-50 benchmark index is 18 per cent down.
Logan said Opus could not ignore the possibility that growing predictions of a recession would become a reality. While he said no business was immune from such an eventuality, Opus had some built-in resilience due to the duration of projects that had long planning horizons and an infrastructure deficit in the Anglo-Saxon markets where Opus operates.
Opus shares were up 1 cent to $1.76.
- NZPA
