Prestige Div, 15% But Profit Down

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31378, 25 May 1967, Page 17

Prestige Div, 15% But Profit Down

Prestige New Zealand, Ltd., Wellington manufacturer of hosiery, lingerie and yard, earned a profit £14,376 —or 11.5 per cent lower at £111,043 in the year to March 31, directors announce in a preliminary report.

They recommend a final ordinary dividend of 7$ per cent, making a steady total dividend of 15 per cent for the year.

Based on the ordinary capital of £510,000 at the end of the previous year, the pay-out for the latest year will be about £76,500 and this will be covered 1.4 times by the profit In the 1966 year, the in-

• terim dividend was paid on ' capital before the public : placement so that the divid- : end rate for that year : equalled 13.5 per cent on end- ■ of-year capital. The latest profit—which • does not include a capital

profit of £24o—returns an earning rate of 21.4 per cent on average ordinary capital against 26.9 per cent the year before.

In their interim report last November, directors said that sales for the first half-year were slightly lower but the group trading profit showed some improvement on that for the same period of the previous year.

the final dividend is payable on July 24, ex July 11.

Second Highest The latest profit is the second highest. Profit rose from around £73,000 in 1962 to £103,054 in 1963. The next year the profit fell to £100,816 and then tp £77,524 in 1965. The 5s shares last sold for 10s to give a dividend yield of 7.5 per cent.