Veris in $34m write-down

Surveying services compan Veris says it will likely report a $34 million non-cash impairment charge to its goodwill because of the poor trading performance of its core business.

The company, which was founded by Adam Lamond, said the write-down would come in its half-yearly results, to be released on February 28, as a result of lower than expected margin earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for its surveying business.

For the first quarter of this financial year, Veris posted a 7 per cent earnings margin before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation on the $25 million revenue its surveying division earned.

It had previously forecast its surveying business would achieve a 15 per cent to 17 per cent Ebitda margin for the period.

In a statement, the company said its numerous acquisitions left it with a large share of intangible assets.

“The impairment will be in part a consequence of the original accounting values to the eight surveying businesses acquired which now operate as one cash generating unit (CGU) and the decline in margin across certain regions,” the statement read.

Shares in Veris were down 13.33 per cent to trade at 7.8 cents each at 3.30pm AEDT