Fine year for Abcal

Press, 4 March 1983, Page 10

Fine year for Abcal

The audited tax-paid profit of Associated British Cables, Ltd, rose 35.7 per cent to $3,113,437 in the year ended December 31. An unchanged final dividend of 16c a share (16 per cent) will be recommended.

Together with the interim dividend paid in October 1982, the total payout to shareholders would be $1,603,125 ($1,368,750) - a distribution of 28.5 per cent on the issued capital of $5.6M, the maximum allowed under the dividend freeze regulation. The result is after depreciation of $560,421

($526,116) and tax of $2,104,041 ($1,499,930).

The chairman, Mr A. W. Revell, said in the preliminary report that sales rose 33 per cent, largely from successful tendering for supply contracts to major New Zealand energy projects, and that the company’s factories were working at near capacity.

Mr Revell said that the forward outlook was strong for the production of mains cables, but less favourable for the general wiring factories whose major markets are within the builidng, auto-

motive and appliance industries.

“Those sectors of industry are at an obviously low level of activity and will remain so until the economy improves, and demand for so much of New Zealand’s production increases,” he said. “At the conclusion of such a successful year and recognising the difficult circumstances ahead, the company is proceeding with a programme of plant modernisation and re-equip-ment to ensure certainty of cost effectiveness in production against all competition.”