Coates claims big share of ‘Tier 1 business’

Seven Group Holdings (SGH) said strong underlying demand in Australia’s construction and infrastructure markets helped rental business Coates record a 2% increase in revenues to A$585 million for the six months to 31 December 2023 – the first half of its financial year. EBITDA profits rose 8% to A$264 million.

SGH said Coates was maintaining healthy utilisation rates – down slightly at 60.2% on the same period in the previous year – and that it enjoyed a “dominant” 28% share of business with Tier 1 infrastructure and construction customers.

The company said the outlook for the business remained positive, with a A$1.7 trillion pipeline of work in construction and infrastructure over the next seven years, adding that it “stands to benefit from an increasing pipeline of renewable energy infrastructure.”

Seven’s other equipment business, Caterpillar dealer WesTrac, also performed strongly, with revenue of $2,907 million up 27%, driven by 23% and 30% increases in machine sales and product support sales, respectively.

SGH said there was demand across the mining and construction, with an older average fleet age in the market producing sales in both new machines and repair and maintenance.

Ryan Stokes, managing director and CEO of Seven Group, said the group’s positive result “was again led by outperformance in the Industrial Services segment of WesTrac, Coates and Boral, with a combined EBIT growth of 40%.”

The company has upgraded its profit forecast for the year to mid- to high-teen EBIT growth, driven by Coates, Boral and WesTrac.

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