Sales revenue was $823.4 million for the year, which was down 4.6% on the prior year. The reduction was primarily due to the closure of a major call centre contract with Telstra at the end of 2011, together with the less than favourable macro environment. The reduction was partially offset by a full year of revenue contribution from the Digital assets acquired in 2011 and new business won in the period.
We achieved underlying EBITA of $80.6 million, down 9.0% on the prior year and within the guidance range of $78 - $83 million that we provided. The reduction in group EBITA was a result of lower revenue, the additional investment on our digital strategy and lower margin catalogue sales within Targeted Media Solutions. However, this was offset by a strong contribution from BPO.
Importantly, the business did have good momentum in the second half of the year, which is traditionally our weaker half, where we had EBITA growth of $2.8m (up 7%) and margin expansion of 100 basis points to 10.6%.
Underlying net profit after tax was $34.7 million, before a net significant item expense of $4.4 million, which brought statutory profit (net profit after tax) to $30.3 million and earnings per share to 22 cents per share.
Cash generation and working capital management continues to be a focus of the group. Operating cash flow is up significantly for the year increasing by 18% and net debt reduced to $241.6 million, down $16.7 million from 30 June 2011.
