Prestige more than doubles profit

Press, 24 March 1977, Page 18

Prestige more than doubles profit

Prestige Holeproof (NZ) Ltd, reports an unaudited' [group net profit for the half! [year to December 31 off [51,230,442. The profit for the! (first half of the previous year was $558,211, after, deducting an extraordinarv [loss of 52.845. I There were no extra-! [ordinary profits or losses in' the latest half year, ; The provision for income' tax is $585,195 compared with $261,544 previously, ( [ Group sales revenue for the [ j six months was 515.4 M, which was 18.6 per cent [higher than for the com[parative period of the previous financial year. ! Trading conditions on [local markets became tighter! [in the course of the half; 'year, and the greater part of | the sales increase was| 'achieved in exports, which], now comprise 15 per cent of j’ the company’s total sales. I An interim ordinary divi-i| dend of 1.5 c a share (3 per] cent) is payable on May 12,‘j

ex dividend April 21. This, (together with the 9 per cent (dividend paid in November 1976, is the maximum per-; !pitted in the year to May; The directors said in their; last annual report, that in' (the early months of. the' '1975-76 financial year the: company had to carry nonrecurring disruptions and [costs associated with bringing together and rationalising the previously sep[arate businesses of Prestige, and Holeproof. To that extent the profits of the last half year are not strictly! comparable with the previous first half year. Good progress is being (made in improving | profitability in areas that [previously had not been perlforming satisfactorily, and in (obtaining a higher return [from export markets. I The profit for the year as a whole, will be substan-' I tially higher than that of] 1 last vear, the directors expect