Westfield raises hopes

Press, 16 August 1978, Page 27

Westfield raises hopes

NZPA Sydney Westfield. Ltd, property ; developer, has held its dividend rate steady at 10c a share despite a 32.38 per I cent rise in net profit to $3.5M for the year to June 30. Gross revenue was 64.8 per cent higher, at $46.8M. The directors said they would “make a further announcement concerning their consideration of the reappraisal of the company’s properties and the likely benefit to shareholders” at the next anual meeting. The company has not changed its dividend rate I since 1974, but it has effectively increased its payout to shareholders by a series of scrip issues, the last was

one-for-four, at the end of 1976. This year, buying pushed Westfield’s shares from around 275 c to more than 500 c, in speculation that the return to shareholders might be something more than the customary “bonus” issue. Westfield has long appealed to investors as an asset-rich company, with its shopping centres how worth much more than when they were opened. The company’s freehold properties were last revalued in 1971, and now stand in the books around SIOSM. Revenue from investments increased 25.42 per cent over the year to $31.7M. “This increase came from all shopping centres in the

group, the Shore Motel, at Artarmon, the William Street office complex, and for the first time, a full 12 months operations from the Trumbull Shopping Park, in Connecticut, U.5.A.,” the directors said. The reason gross revenue was up 64.8 per cent was an increase in the group’s “outside” construction activity. This was mainly the new Hurstville shopping centre being built for the State Superannuation Board, and the extensions to the Burwood shopping centre, which is owned by T. and G. Insurance. The dividend (5c interim plus 5c final) requires $990,000, compared with the previous year’s $858,000.