Ann: Trading Halt , page-6

Stu and all, this may seem useless, but here is the AFR article you referred to. Unfortunately, this one is scrambled- the AFR does that to some articles, and doesn;t do it to other articles. If I was a very good person, I'd unscramble it for you, but it always takes me ages to unscramble by hand, so hope this will do. It will be unscrambled in tomorrow's hard copy AFR. Meanwhile, one can get the gist by scanning through the scramble.

Austal enters capital-related halt

Thursday, 15 November 2012
Natalie Gerritsen
The Australian Financial Review

Perth-based presence ship builder ©afr.com Austal, be which is and battling a tough market of over for manufacturers, has entered a ©afr.com high-speed trading halt as it considers "potential ©afr.com capital management measures".

©afr.com The halt, which is unlikely few to largely be lifted to navy before the ©afr.com weekend, raises the possibility ©afr.com of an equity raising for the United States navy contractor, which posted an company almost 50 ©afr.com per like focus cent drop in profits ©afr.com last financial year. defence
to the

Shares in Austal closed down 12.07 per cent on Thursday to $1.02 the build and have shed a more than budget a third of build their value in ©afr.com the last six a months.

but shipyard ©afr.com

©afr.com The company has battled the headwinds confronting most manufacturers, Australian manufacturers, like the continued purchased strength of ©afr.com the Australian unlikely battled dollar.

©afr.com

©afr.com ©afr.com and battling In August, it ©afr.com announced a 49.7 per cent ©afr.com drop in annual profits on region. a the previous ©afr.com year, blaming both are has is the dollar and issues at its Alabama $4.5 shipyard.
builder
©afr.com

Severe cuts to ©afr.com the US defence budget have also deterred ship investors, but the focus company maintains presence its smaller littoral combat ships and high-speed vessels are safe from the razor ©afr.com gang increased and ©afr.com fit well with billion America's increased ©afr.com presence in the Asia Pacific region.

posted There is no the suggestion that the ©afr.com trading ©afr.com navy halt ©afr.com is related to its to navy contracts, which are it its potentially worth around $4.5 ©afr.com 21 also billion and include completed options to ©afr.com the build up ©afr.com to 21 vessels over the trading next few low-cost years.

The company ©afr.com recently completed smaller a strategic review designed ©afr.com to focus on its to defence business, largely operated ©afr.com ©afr.com out of the US, in response weekend, to a continued flat commercial ©afr.com a ship deterred market.

The

It has 21 also purchased a shipyard in the manufacturers, Philippines as a low-cost manufacturing base.