I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr Bruce Nicholson, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, everybody, and thanks for taking the time to join us today. As you just heard, my name's Bruce Nicholson. I'm the recently appointed Chief Executive Officer of Fleetwood. I'm also joined today by Andrew Wackett, our Chief Financial Officer, and together we'll take you through our results for this last financial year. I'll provide some introductory comments. I'll let Andrew speak in some more detail around our results and our cash position, and then I'll talk to the various businesses and outlook for you. Now, we'll push through the details fairly quickly today, because I want to take some time at the end for Q&As, and I'm also mindful it's a busy market with a lot of announcements being made this week.
For those of you who are actually flipping through the presentation at the same time, I guess, out of interest, the front page of our presentation today is the Barramurra Public School here in New South Wales in southwest Sydney. With that, I'll sort of kick off now to my broad presentation. Look, we continue to focus on three core businesses, our flagship Building Solutions business, where we see the best opportunity for step change and growth in the Fleetwood business. Accommodation Solutions, where we have two operating villages up in the Pilbara. We also have significant opportunities to form developing new community facilities, I'll talk more to that as I go. In RV Solutions, where we have Camec and Northern RV are both seen as leaders in the recreational vehicle, caravan, and motor home sectors as well.
Fleetwood's three operating businesses combine to deliver a sound performance, resulting in underlying earnings before interest, tax, and amortization of AUD 26.3 million for full year 2021 financial year, up 18% compared to the previous corresponding period. Revenue was up 9% to AUD 360 million. Cash levels at the end of the period were lower than in the first half of 2021 due to the working capital requirements of two major building projects, which carried across to the end of the financial year. The company's largely utilized our tax losses from previous years and has recommenced paying taxes this year as well. You'll note that cash levels and balance sheet remain strong and are well matched to the company's ongoing requirements. You'll recall the board introduced a revised dividend payout policy of 100% of net profit after tax in February 2021, and we intend to continue with that.
Our final dividend for this half will be AUD 0.105 per share has been declared, following the AUD 0.06 per share interim dividend paid in April 2021. This compares to an FY 2020 dividend of AUD 0.12 per share. The strategic focus of Fleetwood management remains on revenue growth, sustainable improvement to our margins, and increasing our utilization while reducing our overheads to improve our earnings. Building Solutions and RV Solutions delivered improved profits, partially offset this second half by Accommodation Solutions, which was impacted by the additional regional room supply coming online and normalization of that business post the COVID-19 impacts in the first half. In Building Solutions, our Victorian and W.A. businesses had very strong results, especially across education, mining, and housing. We also saw some ongoing operational integration issues in our New South Wales business.
Searipple Village in Karratha saw occupancy levels return to normal levels, and then we've also seen an increase in regional room supply up in the Pilbara. With closed international borders, we've seen a boom in domestic travel, which has benefited our RV Solutions business as well. I'll now pass over to Andrew to focus on some more financial details.
Thanks, Bruce. I'm on slide five. Good morning, everyone. Once again, we've generated solid cash flow as a business. This is pleasing given the ongoing uncertainties that all companies find themselves in during these times. Our operating and free cash flows were lower than the last year, but there are some specific reasons for this. Namely, the recommencement of tax payments, and more importantly, working capital associated with the two major projects that remained under construction at the end of the financial year. We have paid out AUD 17 million in dividends and have AUD 0.20 per share in franking credits. That's available to support up to AUD 0.46 per share of fully franked dividends. Slide six. Looking at the balance sheet, we're in a strong position.
Our closing net cash of AUD 58 million is solid. That's before the return of the AUD 8.7 million of project finance advances we received in July. We have no balance sheet debt. Our credit facilities of AUD 85 million are drawn to AUD 18 million for performance bonds. Our working capital is at a more sustainable level to support the Building Solutions business and to provide appropriate levels of inventory support for the strength in RV sales. For the year, we delivered an overall return on capital employed of 15.9%. Back to you, Bruce.
Perhaps you're muted.
Apologies. Sorry about that. I've just moved over to slide seven. Thank you, Andrew. I'll take a more specific look at the different businesses and particularly the outlook. The outlook for Building Solutions remains very strong, especially driven by federal and state government stimulus spending programs. Our order book is sitting at AUD 103 million compared to AUD 74 million last year. We've seen significant increase in our bid pipeline with a 56% increase in tenders submitted to AUD 438 million to compare to last year. This pipeline excludes several government projects that have been announced post the end of the financial year, such as the specialist quarantine facilities that have been announced across several states. We continue to see modular construction gaining traction, particularly in this environment of wanting rapid solutions for things like quarantine facilities, housing, and education.
We're starting to see our results of our strategy work, but still have yet to complete achieving a fully nationalized and integrated business. That's a work in progress. We also have to be mindful that there are challenges, not least of which are the cost of raw materials and general labor shortages across the industry. The ongoing lockdowns on our East Coast during the September quarter are also impacting our activity and some of our client decision-making. These have had the biggest impact on our New South Wales business, with restrictions being placed on our staff and contractors, as well as construction sites for the first time, in July and August.
There's been a negative impact on our business in July and August, and at this stage it's very hard to predict the nature or any form of recovery in the first half, but it's unlikely we'll recover those numbers in the first half of 2022. This financial year, I'm sorry. We'll continue to monitor the situation and do what we can to manage the impacts of that and provide a further update in our AGM. What we see in the Accommodation Solutions performance is a return to more normal levels after the abnormal activity driven by COVID-19 response to the sector last year. Importantly, some of the activity and opportunities in Building Solutions are also opportunities for us to leverage our Accommodation Solutions skill set.
We can leverage the Building Solutions to be able to offer new villages at competitive costs, whether they be in the mining, residential, or affordable housing sector, or as I've said before, in the quarantine space. In the near term, the FIFO room market in Karratha is oversupplied and we're competing in that market. Ultimately, with the investment touted in the mining and oil and gas sector, we see significant medium-term opportunities. That is what we're positioning ourselves to take advantage for at the moment. RV Solutions experienced the breakout year, which has been driven the combination of border shutdowns, with Aussies rediscovering their love of caravanning and camping, as well as the restructuring that was undertaken by management back in 2020. I'm just traveling into Slide 12, if those of you are trying to keep pace with me.
The medium-term outlook remains strong with what is happening in Australia at the moment, with international travels seeming like it's still a long way off. Our challenges are skilled labor shortages, sourcing product and freight issues. In order to capitalize on the opportunities that have been presented, we're continuing to look at expanding our retail and renovation offerings, while also commercializing new products such as sandwich panels and aluminum frames. In summary, our business is strong and well positioned. We have three businesses, all with significant opportunities in front of them. As discussed, Building Solutions and Accommodation Solutions provide complementary opportunities, while our RV Solutions business is well positioned to introduce new products and pivot to the aftermarket segment as international borders reopen.
We need to note, of course, that there are challenges, with significant lockdown in New South Wales impacting both manufacturing and construction, while border closures and rolling shutdowns across the East Coast is creating uncertainty and impacting our ability to execute some of our improvement plans. As I said, it's too early to quantify the impact of this on our business. We'll continue to monitor and act where we can. I would like to add that I've been incredibly impressed by our people's agility and their ability to push through and be resilient in this difficult time. Our balance sheet is solid, and we'll be prudent with the way we utilize this balance sheet to pursue growth.
I'm very mindful that we still have a way to go in terms of delivering the types of margins that our shareholders expect, but I'm confident the strategy is in place and the team is focused on achieving that. We also remain committed to retaining our annual dividend payout of 100% of profits on a net profit after tax basis. With that, I'll thank you, and I'll be happy to take any questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question will come from Gavin Allen with Euroz Hartleys. Please go ahead.
Bruce and Andrew, thanks very much for that. Just a couple of quick ones from me, if you wouldn't mind. Just firstly on the RV business, and you sort of mentioned Building Solutions and the impact that COVID was having on that business in July and August. How's RV coped with the various lockdowns would be my first one, guys?
Thanks for the question, Gavin. We're sort of monitoring that quite closely. RV Solutions is holding up probably better than I would have expected. We've certainly seen a significant drop in foot traffic through the retail stores. We are seeing plenty of activity online. We are seeing a slowing down of online, but it's actually quite small. Smaller than we've expected it to be. I think there's some uncertainty and people are sort of trying to hold back and see what's going to happen in terms of state borders reopening so they can get back to their travel plans. Does that make sense to you, Gavin?
Yeah. No, that makes sense. Just a real quick one on the working capital. We saw you talked about the two major projects and the impact that's having. Would we expect that to sort of reverse in 1H 2022, do you think, Bruce or Andrew?
Look, from where I sit, Gavin, I think the question is what does the end of the year look like? It's likely we could have projects that carry over to the end of this financial year that sort of have the same sort of impact. It's a business that can have some very large and solid projects that are likely to cross over between financial years. One of the things we've done, as you've picked up, is we are hedging by pre-ordering in both the RV Solutions and in the Building Solutions business to ensure we can protect ourselves from some of the price increases. We'll just act prudently on that. I'd hate to try and give you a figure as to whether it's going to normalize or it's going to go up or down at this stage.
No, that makes sense. Just the last one for me is just the Building Solutions tension between the short term and the longer term. By that I just mean you pointed out the challenges you're having in relation to COVID, but just in terms of that tendering number of 438. That seems to me that that might be close to certainly a heightened level, might even be close to a record. I'm just wondering if you can give us any sense of how that compares to previous periods. I know the timing of the award of this stuff is difficult, but just in terms of broader demand, I guess.
I might ask Andrew to try and answer that one, given he's been around a little bit longer than I have and might have a bit more history.
Yeah, sure. Thanks for the question, Gavin. Look, we said in the presentation that it's a 56% increase on the value of tenders submitted at the same time last year, at 30th June 2020. Certainly in the four years I've been here, it's certainly the largest tender pipeline we have. The outlook is very strong in that space.
Perfect. Thank you, gentlemen. That's all for me.
Thanks, Gavin.
Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Our next question will come from Tony Mitchell with Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Well, welcome aboard, Bruce, and hello to Andrew. I've got a few questions. The first is, how long do you think it will take to get the economies of scale that you're looking for in modular accommodation with the education sector?
I'll try and answer that. Given I've been here seven or eight weeks now, I intend to give a broader update on that, Tony, when we get through to the second half or after the first half results. Give me some time. Unfortunately, I've got some ideas on that, but I've been unable to get around to the factories and spend the time on the ground I would like to give you a firmer answer than that, Tony. It's not a short-term change. There's certainly are economies of scale that we will leverage regardless of what manufacturing looks like in Fleetwood. As I said, it's probably premature for me to try and answer that for you right now. My intent would be to give a broader perspective on that after the first half results, if you don't mind.
Okay. In terms of the RV thing, my understanding was that you were looking to sell the caravan parts business. Is that on hold now or what's the planning there?
We've done a strategic review. It's not on hold. We're retaining that business now. We are executing the strategy for RV Solutions. We have a very clear and defined strategy. Some of that was obviously on hold while we're doing a strategic review, Tony. We've made the decision to keep that in our portfolio. If unsolicited bids came in for that business, we would certainly look at them as you would expect anybody to do. However, there's a clear strategy in that space. We are about pivoting away from the dependence on the OEM market into the aftermarket space. We're pivoting towards ensuring that we've got the right new products coming online in that space to capitalize as international travel lifts and we see people shifting from buying new caravans to actually repairing and modifying caravans for travel around Australia. That's where we sit with the RV Solutions.
Does that answer your question?
Yes, it does. Andrew, you've mentioned you've got a working capital facility of AUD 85 million and you've drawn down to AUD 18. How much of a further drawdown are you going to do in relation to that?
Thanks, Tony. Look, that's really project-dependent. As you'd appreciate with the construction business, we have to provide bonds against the work we're doing. It just really depends on the project. We've deliberately probably got too much in terms of facilities. We've got that tender pipeline is very large and there's lots of other projects that are probably further out on our horizon that we're looking at, where we just want to make sure we've got the ability to do those projects, as and when they come up.
With the quarantine facilities that are being mooted in Victoria, et cetera, are you going to tender for those contracts?
We are certainly participating in the process, yes.
Right. How long do you think it'll take for them to make a decision as to who gets the contract?
As it currently stands, it's looking like it will be a panel-type arrangement. I can't say too much. We've clearly bid the Victorian ones are out. It's with the Commonwealth and the principal contractor at the moment. We will let the market know as soon as we know, if that makes sense.
There are no further questions at this time, and now I'd like to hand the call back over to Mr Nicholson for closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Look, I have nothing further to add. We'll clearly be doing a roadshow or a video roadshow in the next few days to our investors. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everybody for dialing in this morning and appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about Fleetwood. Thank you