C.I.G. steps up investment

Press, 16 January 1979, Page 15

C.I.G. steps up investment

■ NZPA Sydney Commonwealth Industrial • Gases, Ltd, plans to spend 5 about SIOOM over the next ; three years. Capital expendij ture during 1979 will be about . S3SM. Capital expenditure during 1978 was 530.5 M, compared with $27.6M in 1977. “The investment in new plant was made partly to 1 achieve further productivity : gains, and partly to achieve - increased production capa-; ; city to meet future growth. [ ; “Our current capital expenditure programme in-

cludes a major item of SIBM at Dandenong, Victoria, while two major capital programmes overseas have been approved.” says the chairman (Sir Kenneth Humphries) in the annual report. He pridected that the company’s interest in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Thailand, and Indonesia should make a progressively greater contribution to profit in the years to come About 50 per cent of the SI.7M increase in group profit last year came from the {overseas companies. Profit [was up from $13.2M to $14.9 |M, with the overseas contriIbution being .S2.IM. : Trading in the first two I months of the current year ! indicates improved activity.