Better trading for Pioneer Concrete

Press, 11 October 1976, Page 20

Better trading for Pioneer Concrete

Commercial

NZPA Sydney! Pioneer Concrete Services,! Ltd, international concrete, quarrying and building materials group, earned a re-j cord trading profit of SAustlOM in the year to June! There was a marginal improvement in pre-tax earnings from the overseas divisions. but this represents a substantial improvement on 1974-75, when earnings fromj overseas were halved and the group's profit fell 11.2 per cent. The group again incurred substantial extraordinary losses: these cut the profit attributable to shareholders to SB.3M compared with 55.9 M previously. Earnings from Australian activities reflected the bene-1 fits of stringent cost controls,! and the gearing of Pioneer’s outputs to current levels of demand. Production in Pioneer’s two major trading divisions, ready mixed concrete, andi quarrying, was virtually steady compared with the) Total output was main-|

tained in the last year, alplough activity, particularly in New South Wales, appears to have been most affected by the down-turn in the construction industry, the directors say. Pioneer Co* crete believes that the worst economic down-turn which created the difficult trading conditions in its overseas divisions is now past.

The group lost S2M on currency realignments, but this was cut back to a total extraordinary loss of SI.7M by extraordinary gains. The dividend rate is being held at 10c a share, with a final payment of sc. A final payment of 2.5 c a share is to be made on the shares issued in the one-for-eight cash issue in April. Profit almost trebled Consolidated Press Holdings, Ltd, raised earnings 53.1 per cent to $7.4M in the year to June 26. Earnings rose 22 per cent to sAust3.9M in the first half while in the six months to June profits rose 113 per cent to 53.5 M. Extraordinary and outside shareholders reduced the over all result for the year to $5.9M compared with $2.3M for the previous corresponding period. Group sales rose from 579.5 M to SIOOM, with S4BM derived from trading in the last half. The annual dividend is to remain at 14c a share, and a final dividend of 7c a share has been recommended.