TRANSPACIFIC POSTS LOSS AMID TURNAROUND

TRANSPACIFIC Industries Group (ASX:TPI) has driven into the red with a loss of $23.6 million, down from the $11.5 million profit in the previous year.

The result was impacted by $69.3 million in impairments relating to the waste management company's Hydrocarbon division, sale of the New Zealand business and fleet grounding last year.
However, underlying profit was $45.7 million down from $92 million in FY14.

Newly appointed Transpacific CEO Vik Bansal says during his short stint he has recognised the company is built on strong fundamentals.

"In the few weeks since I joined the company, I have spent time with our management team reviewing the businesses, the progress we have made on a number of initiatives and visited a number of depots and landfill sites around the company," Bansal says.

"We are the largest waste management company in Australia, our business brands, especially Cleanaway are strong and we are the market leader in every segment we participate.

"To me, this is impressive by any standards. My commitment is to deliver on this potential."

Cleanaway reported stronger earnings in the second half compared to the previous period, up 11.7 per cent. The improvement was offset by lower earnings in the Industrials business.

The Post Collections business is also tracking strong revenue and earnings growth, buoyed by the acquisition of Melbourne Regional Landfill earlier this year.

Revenue and underlying earnings in Industrials declined 8.1 per cent and 38.1 per cent respectively. This was impacted by lower collection volumes in the Hydrocarbons business.

A fall in commodity prices continue to hurt Transpacific's resource and mining customers, negatively impacting its Energy Minerals and Remediation division.

Transpacific CFO Brendan Gill says strategies to simplify the organisational structure and reduce costs will benefit the company in the long-term.

"The improvements we have seen in the Cleanaway results, especially during the second half of the year are a good indication that we have been able to instigate a number of initiatives to improve overall performance of that business," Gill says.

"The acquisition of landfill capacity in Melbourne, the implementation of the fleet control system, greater discipline in our pricing regime and the system developments which are occurring across the company are making us a stronger competitor in the Australian waste market."

Transpacific has rolled out a number of initiatives during the past 12 months, targeting price and volume growth, improve landfill capacity, maximise productivity and acquisitions.

The company also secured two small tuck-in acquisitions for $6.6 million in the second half, which is expected to propel additional gains in the coming year.

A dividend of 8c per share will be paid on October 9.

*Please note: Transpacific Industries Group (ASX:TPI) completed a changed of name to Cleanaway Waste Management (ASX:CWY) on July 1, 2016