T. N. T. profit 29% higher

Press, 2 May 1981, Page 20

T. N. T. profit 29% higher

Thomas Nationwide Transport, Ltd, increased its net profit 29.4 per cent from $27.9M to $36.1M in the nine months to March 31, but earnings failed to grow as quickly as revenue in the third quarter. However the result virtually assured the transport group of record earnings in the full year — T.N.T.’s managing director (Sir Peter Abeles) said yesterday that he expected earnings to be “miles ahead” of last year's peak profit of $40.2M. T.N.T.’s nine-month revenue of $802.8M rose 37.4 per cent on the figure of 5584.2 M in the first threequarters of 1979-80. Revenue in the final three months totalled $328.4M — 40 per cent of the nine month total — and T.N.T.’s profit in the third quarter was 510.2 M, or about 28 per cent of the earnings of $36.1M for the three-quarters. The group’s profit for the nine-month period represented earnings of about 4.5 per cent in the revenue dollar.

However, earnings in the third quarter represented a profit, of about 3.3 c on every dollar of revenue produced in the same three month period. The directors said in yesterday’s report that good trading conditions in Australia produced higher sales and profits, and that T,N.T.’s United Kingdom operations were producing “significant profits’’ despite the depressed business environment. T.N.T. equity-accounted profits of its associate companies, included the 45 per cent of Mcllwraith McEacharn, Ltd, and the 50 per cent-owned Ansett Transport Industries, Ltd, but the contribution made by

the associates was not quantified. In the first half of the current year T.N.T.'s earnings would have fallen slightly without a solid contribution by the associates. Sir Peter said that integration of the former Seatrain shipping activities with those of Trans Freight Lines, Inc., of the United States had been successfully completed, and the group was now producing profits. The directors warned that T.N.T.'s Canadian operations were still being affected by difficulties in the Canadian economy and the group’s Brazilian s jbsidiaries had recorded a small loss because of high inflation and “exorbitant interest rates.”

The latest result did not include an extraordinary gain of $3.3M. which was down about SI.3M on the extraordinary profit reported for the first six months of the current year. The directors warned that movements in currencies since March 31 had been to the detriment of overseas operations which convert their profits to Australian dollars. They took dividend for the nine-month period to 9c a share by declaring a steady 3c a share payment on capital which increased 58.5 per cent since the third quarter of 1979-80, and by 24 per cent since the'beginning of 1981.