Horticultural maiden div.

Press, 28 September 1984, Page 15

Horticultural maiden div.

Horticultural Industries, Ltd, listed last March, has had an audited profit of $692,361 after tax and deduction of minority interests for the 10 months to July 31. The directors yesterday advised that a distribution of 2.5 c per share (5 per cent) would be made from the share premium account and would be tax free in the hands of shareholders. Payment would be made on October 19. The dividend is in line with a forecast in the company’s prospectus last February. The net profit after tax ($357,031), minority interests ($79,135) and extraordinary items ($73,341) was $619,020. A forecast of $1,168,000 for the 12 months to next March 31 was made in the company’s prospectus. The directors said the company’s divisions performed to expectation in the 10 month period. Since listing the company had been offered, or had identified and investigated, many business opportunities and had moved, to acquire certain complementary business activities. The group’s organisation and its management had been strengthened by a regrouping of activities, and the appointment to new positions of a number of skilled professional managers, the directors said. “All divisions have been trading at satisfactory levels since balance date, with a particular focus on identifying and servicing

customer needs,” they said. They were confident the group’s activities would continue to develop satisfactorily and achieve the growth in profits indicated in prospectus forecasts. In the 10 months to July 31, the group acquired B.7ha of kiwifruit farmland in Te Puke at varying stages of development This broadened its geographical base of kiwifruit investments. Horticultural Industries also acquired for cash all the shares of Grahams Indoor Gardens Pty, Ltd, in Brisbane, together with a 6.Bha operating site close to that city. While negotiating this purchase, the company was also able to secure a plant rental contract in Brisbane, “which with Grahams market position gives us a prominent place in the Queensland Plant Rental Industry,” the directors said. Following the acquisition by the Freightways group of 20 per cent of the Horticultural Industries capital, the directors advised that Mr Trevor Farmer, the managing director of Freightways Holdings, Ltd, had been appointed a director of Horticultural Industries.