Dalgety Profit Jumps

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31908, 8 February 1969, Page 16

Dalgety Profit Jumps

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Feb. 7.

Dalgety and New Zealand Loan, Ltd, has announced a group profit of £917,000 ($1.95m) for the six months to December 31. This is £358,000 or 64 per cent higher than the after-tax profit for the same period in 1967. The chairman of the Lon-don-based stock company (Lieutenant - Colonel C. P. Dawnay) said in London that the increase in the current financial year’s pre-tax pro-

fits over the previous year was caused by improved results in all the countries in which the group traded. “By far the most significant improvement has taken place in the United States, where, through greater efficiency; our poultry division is now making profits, even though selling prices are still low,” Lieutenant - Colonel Dawnay says. “The increase in New Zealand profits has been influenced by the improvement in the economy after the devaluation in November, 1967. The rural division has benefited considerably from increased revenue received from produce and stock,” he says. The directors have declared a steady 5 per cent interim dividend on ordinary shares. Lieutenant-Colonel Dawnay says that if the estimate of I an increase in profits of about

£500,000 for the full year is achieved, the board will consider recommending a higher dividend than that paid for 1968, which was 12 per cent. The preference dividend for the half-year absorbed £91,004 and the cost of the ordinary dividend now declared and which will be paid on May 16, 1969, is £542,000.