COMMERCIAL Feltex sales buoyant; dividend 15 p.c.

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33460, 15 February 1974, Page 7

COMMERCIAL Feltex sales buoyant; dividend 15 p.c.

Sales of Feltex New Zealand. Ltd. and subsidiaries, continue to expand and are once again running at a rate more than 25 per cent ahead of the previous year. In making this comparison appropriate allowance has been made for sale of Smith and Brown, which are included in full for the first time.

Profits before tax have also: shown commensurate growth] in all divisions other than] ] tyres, the directors say in] the half-yearly report. ’ The tyre division has in-, icurred greatly increased raw] material costs, and as a result; of a recent decision from the Wages Tribunal, labour rates! have advanced beyond the limits set by the Government in its economic stabili-i sation policy.

An interim tyre price increase was granted on January 1, to recoup some of the increase in raw material costs, but a further price increase is required if investment in the industry is to continue, the directors say. “It is proposed to restore the dividend rate to 15 per cent a year—the rate prior to the two-for-five bonus issue in late 1973. Accordingly, an interim ordinary dividend of 71- per cent will

be paid on March 20; ex dividend March 4,” they say. In the latest full financial year the company paid an interim dividend of 6' per cent on the bonus increased capital—making an effective pay-out of 16.6 per cent on the old capital An annual rate of 15 per cent on lhe present capital compares with a rate of 21 per cent on the capita 1 before last year’s bonus issue.