management outllook was bullish pe 11.85 atm, page-2

has to have been a temporary panic sell/over-reaction coz the first half estmimate of 58-63 mill profit wasnt met, but management says theyre going to meet the 15-20% forecasts and were bullish thorughout the report, saying that earnings will be scewed as per previous yrs to the 2nd half

I think the market expected the stock to grow higher than 20% for the full year, even though management never said that profit would grow greater than 15-20%

Market expected too much.

Still, such a big solid company shouldnt have been smashed as hard as it did today. Not by more than 20%. that was ludicrous!

heres a summary of the result:

Shares in United Group Limited (UGL) lost more than 20% after it reported a 51% increase profit to $53.3 million for the six months to 31 December 2007. The company said that record revenues helped the result and added that it was on track for full year profit growth of 15 to 20%.

But the market reacted negatively to the profit result, which was below analyst's expectations of result between $58 and $63 million and as at 1443 AEDT, shares in the company were down 21%.

United said that in previous years, revenue and earnings have been weighted to the second half, and this would be the case this year due to the timing of some projects, gain shares, and the contribution from UGL Unicco.

Underlying EBIT for the half was $87.3 million, up 40% on the previous corresponding period (pcp), which reflected an increase in EBIT margin from 4.8% to 5.6% over the period.

Operating revenue increased 20% to a record $1.6 billion, while underlying earnings per share were up 30% to 33.8cper share.

CEO Richard Leupen said growth expectations for the full year remained on track after investing heavily in IT systems, project management capabilities, in order to sustain organic growth.