Reporting its annual numbers to the market, the engineering group said it had raised its revenue 36% year-on-year to $A1.1 billion, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation was up a similar 29% to $115 million.

It said that its net profit had also risen 28% to $62.9 million, with net profit before tax of $90.1 million.

It had previously given guidance that its NPBT figure would be $90-100 million.

Forge also told investors that it was sitting on $103.9 million, even after acquisitions this year.

It secured about $900 million in work this year, going into the 2014 financial year with an order book of $1.3 billion.

Significantly, Forge said much of the new work was from repeat customers.

“By every measure, this is an excellent result in what have been challenging market conditions,” Forge managing director David Simpson said.

During the year, it managed to expand into North America with the acquisition of Taggart Global, and Forge said this investment would give it exposure to a recovering North American economy, while it also pointed to Africa as a source of growth.

It did not give guidance for FY2014.

Forge shares dropped 8.6% in early trade to $4.80.