JSE-listed construction firm Group Five on Wednesday announced that it expected its fully diluted headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the year ended June 30 to be between 20% and 30% higher, at 382c to 414c, than the fully-diluted HEPS of 318c achieved during the prior year.

HEPS was expected to be between 396c and 424c, an increase of between 40% and 50% from the 283c a share achieved in 2013.

The company, which was also expecting an increase in fully-diluted earnings per share (EPS) and EPS of between 45% and 55%, said all its business segments performed largely in line with expectations with the exception of the second-half civil engineering margin, which was recovering more slowly than expected from its weak position during the first half of the year.

“The underlying performance of all the group’s businesses was pleasing in the context of weak domestic markets and in line with expectations.

“The beneficial contribution of the group’s strategic positioning for annuity-type businesses of investments and concessions, manufacturing and operations and maintenance contracts, as well as the group’s strong position in African mining and energy, and its leading position in the domestic water and power sector has mitigated, to some extent, the effects of continued fragility in the South African building and civil engineering markets,” Group Five stated.

The company also reminded its stakeholders that during the 2013 financial year the company had been impacted by certain factors that did not repeat in 2014.

These included a provision for an administrative penalty on four contracts that did not fall within the group’s leniency agreement with the Competition Commission, the remnant operating losses and impairment incurred in its construction materials businesses prior to its sale or transfer and the close-out costs for the group’s Middle East operations.