Henderson, Pollard achieves records

Press, 10 December 1981, Page 22

Henderson, Pollard achieves records

Henderson and Pollard, Ltd, the Auckland-based timber company, achieved records in almost every sector of its activities in the five months to September 30, said the directors.

■ The optimism expressed in an interim report to shareholders previously by the directors had been justified, and the trend was expected to continue for the balance of the year, they said. At the annual meeting on August 10, advice was given that in order to synchronise balance dates with the group’s two major shareholders, the financial year would end on March 31 in the future.

This move would also make the group’s own reporting easier in the final six months because the board would have more time prior to the on-rush of the Christmas period, the directors said.

“It will be appreciated, however, that for the first interim report some problems arise in that this present report covers a period of five months only, up to

September 30, and as such, makes it almost impossible to give true comparatives with an equivalent period in 1980.

“In addition, this is the first period during which group results have been influenced by bringing to account the financial information relative to newly acquired operations. As reported earlier, these comprise a 70 per cent interest in Bestwood, Ltd, the manufacturing operations of J. Scott and Co., Ltd, as well as Houston Timbers. Ltd,” they said.

All of these contributed to the earnings of ; the latest period, and were being steadily integrated into the group. The unaudited profit in the five months amounted to about $1,250,000, compared with $1,115,000 in the initial six months of the last financial year. The tax provision rose $19,000 to $455,000 in the five months. In determining the latest result, minority interests of $lOl,OOO were deducted. Sales for the five months

totalled S26M, as against $15.3M last year, and as earlier predicted, there was a substantial export content, the directors said.

With these figures in mind, the board gave consideration to its recommendation in respect of the interim dividend. This had been conservative for many years, but had later been offset by a strong final dividend.

This year, in order to provide a better degree of balance between the two payments, the directors recommended an interim dividend of 4c a share (8 per cent) compared with 2.5 c a share previously.

The final dividend would; be decided by the directors ; based upon how the company . fared at the end of the financial year, they said. The final dividend payment on the preference shares would be made on May 1, and after that these shares would convert on the basis of 175 ordinary shares for each 100 preference shares redeemed.