Wilson And Horton Interim Recovery

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31832, 9 November 1968, Page 22

Wilson And Horton Interim Recovery

Wilson and Horton, Ltd, the publisher of the “New Zealand Herald” and “New Zealand Weekly News,” increased its profit substantially in the half-year to September 28, directors say in an interim report.

However, the improvement for the halfyear has been partly because of the steps taken within the company to arrest the decline in earnings and partly to the improvement in the economic situation, they say.

The interim dividend has been raised from 2) to 4 per cent, payable December 5, ex dividend November 22. I The latest result is a comparison with one of the worst periods in the company’s recent history, when the economic situation forced a very severe drop in earnings.

Wage Increases The company will be faced with the effect of the general wage order and several new awards and the group will have to meet many additional costs in the second half of the financial year. However, in spite of these factors, directors are hopeful

that the year’s profit will recover at least to the figure for 1966-67. The increase in interim

dividend has been made in expectation of this profit recovery and as a move towards reducing the disparity between the interim and final dividends. Last year, the total dividend of 8 per cent was covered 1.6 times by the profit of $436,817. The year before, the profit was $511,036.