New Zealand's Fletcher Building <FBU.NZ> said on Wednesday that it would divest its Australian concrete supply business after reporting an 8% drop in half-year net profit after tax.
The company said it had launched a formal sale process for the business, Rocla Pty, and that it faced tough market conditions in Australia, its biggest contributor to earnings.
Fletcher reported a net profit after tax of NZ$82 million ($52.36 million) in the first half, compared with NZ$89 million a year earlier.
Fletcher expects market activity in Australia's residential sector to stabilise in the second half and remain little changed in New Zealand, compared with the first half.
Fletcher reiterated its forecast for group earnings before interest and tax (excluding significant items) to be in the range of NZ$515 million to NZ$565 million for the fiscal year 2020.
The company's half-year revenue fell 5% to NZ$3.96 billion.
It also announced an interim dividend of 11 cents per share, compared with 8 cents declared a year earlier.
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
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