Orica today announced a Net Profit After Tax and Before Significant Items for the year ended 30 September 2005 of $335 million, a 3% increase over the previous year.

A final dividend of 46 cents was declared, franked at 15 cents, bringing the total dividend for 2005 to 71 cents, an increase of 4% over the 2004 total dividend.

Return on shareholders’ funds before significant items was 23.2% and earnings per share was 122.7 cents, both up over last year.

Sales revenue was up 11% over 2004.

Orica’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Graeme Liebelt, said that the result showed the resilience of earnings from Orica’s current portfolio of businesses. "Incitec Pivot suffered from adverse weather and disrupted market conditions, while the other businesses performed very well", he said.

A highlight was the record result of the Mining Services business and the continued improvement in performance of the North American business. Mr Liebelt commented that "It is particularly pleasing to see the efforts of the North American employees to improve the efficiency of their business being rewarded, with the business now performing at well above our 18% Return On Net Assets hurdle".

Mr Liebelt said that the Chemicals businesses had performed well, with both posting record results, and that Consumer Products had performed strongly despite softer market conditions, reflecting significant efficiency gains made in that business.

In commenting on the Fertiliser business, Mr Liebelt said that "in a year that brought poor seasonal conditions and tougher market competition, Incitec Pivot faced the challenge head-on by restructuring the business to ensure that it remained the lowest cost supplier of fertiliser on the East coast".

Mr Liebelt said that "During 2005, we have laid the foundations for a period of sustained profit improvement. The completed expansions of our ammonium nitrate facilities at Yarwun and Kooragang Island and our current expansion of Yarwun will provide additional capital productivity improvements and continued earnings momentum. The agreement to acquire certain parts of the Dyno Nobel business continues our strategy of growing our best businesses. This acquisition will mean that Orica’s Mining Services business will be one of the few businesses based in Australia that can claim to be a true global leader".

Commenting on the outlook for 2006, Mr Liebelt said that compared with 2005, earnings should continue to grow subject to seasonal conditions in the agricultural sector and the global economic environment.

November 21, 2005

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