It’s the second-last day of Australia’s reporting season for the 2024 fiscal year, and several big hitters in the business world have delivered their final year results, including Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX:WES), Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (ASX:SXL), and Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:QAN).
Wesfarmers – which owns Bunnings, Kmart, Officeworks, among other segments – said its statutory net profit had grown 3.7 per cent in the 2024 fiscal year to a figure of $2.56 billion compared to the same time last year.
Its revenue had also seen a slight increase of 1.5% to $44.19 billion in FY24 – largely on-target with expectations – and its dividend was raised to $1.98 fully franked, on the basis of this growth.
In terms of the separate sectors, Bunnings’ revenues had grown in FY24 by 2.3% to $18.97 billion, Kmart was up 4.4% to $11.11 billion, Officeworks was also higher by 2.3% for $3.43 billion, Wesfarmers Chemicals Energy and Fertilisers (CEF) had fallen by 16.9% to $2.75 billion, Industrial and Safety was up 1.5% to $2.02 billion, Wesfarmers Health had risen 5.9% to $5.62 billion, and Catch revenues had fallen 35.9% to $227 million.
Meanwhile, Southern Cross Media – which owns more than 99 radio stations under the brands Triple M and Hit, and broadcasts 96 free to air TV signals across regional Australia – said its revenue had dropped 1% to $499.4 million for the year, down 1% on FY23, while underlying EBITDA had also fallen by 14% to $66.2 million.
Underlying NPAT for the media group had also taken a hit – being 49% down at $11.2 million (from $21.9 million in FY23).
In addition to this, Southern Cross had cancelled its final dividend for the year, and said it was in active negotiations for the sale of its ‘non-core’ television assets.
Finally, Qantas said its statutory profit after tax had fallen 28.3% in FY24 to $1.25 billion (from $1.74 billion in FY23), despite a rise of 10.7% in revenue and other income to $21.94 billion during the same period.
Qantas did not declare or paid any dividends during the fiscal year 2024, although it said statutory earns per share were at 75.9 cents on June 30 2024, down from 96 cents the previous year.
The airliner also said profits were likely to be weak in the future, based on softening demand for travel following previous peaks.
Qantas shares fell 1.74% on the news (to $6.21) at 11:14 AEST. At the same time, Wesfarmers shares were down 3.13% (to $74.78), while Southern Cross Media shares traded higher by 1.89% (to 54 cents).