The company’s outlook has been boosted by its success in building minerals processing plants, most recently its $A126 million deal to design and build the Nova nickel plant, other work for nickel miner Western Areas and the construction contract for Doray Minerals’ Deflector project, all in Western Australia.

Overall earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were up 18% to $20.3 million, cashflow from operations was up 127% to $42.5 million, but GR’s net earnings after tax were down 9% to $12.9 million.

The company said its earnings result reflected the successful implementation of a growth strategy to pursue geographical expansion, apply its process engineering capabilities to a broader range of commodities and expand contracting models to include engineering, procurement and construction management functions.

Cash in the bank was up 72% to $63.5 million, and a 5c dividend was declared, bringing the year’s total to 9.5c.

The company hasn’t said how long it can continue to pay dividends given the woes in the global economy, but GR managing director Geoff Jones said he expected the company’s strong order book into this fiscal year and anticipated cash flow meant it was well placed to continue returns to shareholders.

Its order book is solid and dominated by Australian based projects with good revenue visibility into 2017.

“The company has been well aligned with a marketplace demanding project certainty in the areas of performance and price, all of which GR Engineering has been able to offer its clients through fixed price, turnkey EPC project delivery,” Jones said.

“The company worked with a range of highly credentialed clients that have given GR Engineering the opportunity to assist them with the development of quality projects in Africa, the United Kingdom, Indonesia and Australia.”