Babcock & Brown has significantly downgraded its interim profit forecast.
The company told the Australian Securities Exchange today that its 2008 interim group net profit after tax was expected to be 25 per cent to 40 per cent below the $250 million interim result reported in 2007.
It said that the wide range in the interim group guidance was due to the fact that the final outcome of the interim result review had not been determined.
The company said the decline in the interim result was primarily due to non-cash impairment provisions flowing through equity accounted investments, in particular real estate and Everest Babcock & Brown, and provisions taken against real estate and other corporate and structured finance assets.
Babcock & Brown chief executive Phil Green said the volatile global capital market conditions had made and continued to make business conditions uncertain and forecasting in the short-term difficult.
