Strong profit growth at Eagle Materials

For the full year to the end of March, Eagle Materials achieved a turnover of US$616.5m, an increase of 22.7%. The trading profit before corporate overheads and interest charges jumped by 49.0% to US$171.7m and, helped by a 13.7% reduction in the net interest charge, the pre-tax profit emerged 54.8% higher at US$158.1m. Both cement and plasterboard volumes reached record levels during the year under review.  With net debt at the year end of only US$77.6m, which represents a gearing level of 15.9%, leaves Eagle Materials with plenty of capacity to finance the planned expansion of cement and plasterboard manufacturing capacity.  
 
Turnover from cement rose by 16.3% to US$207.7m as total shipments rose by 9.3% to 2.50m tonnes and the average price from the wholly-owned operations increased by 7.2% to US$78.01 per tonne, while the final quarter registered a 13.3% rise to US$81.12 per tonne (US$73.59 per short ton).  The trading profit advanced by 14.2% to US$57.6m. Illinois Cement Company was fully consolidated from the 11th of January and prior to that date as a joint venture, as remains the case with the 50% owned Texas Lehigh Cement, owned jointly with HeidelbergCement.  The amount of cement bought in from other producers rose by 26.4% in the final quarter to 0.13m tonnes.