Mutual Pacific busier

Press, 6 April 1989, Page 27

Mutual Pacific busier

Mutual Pacific, the finance and vehicle-leasing company that emerged from the mining company, Westbridge Holdings, reports a tax-paid profit for the half-year ended December 31 of $1,219,329 before extraordinary items. This is 56.6 per cent up on the comparative profit for the six months ending June 30 but 0.7 per cent down on the profit for the half-year ended December 31, 1988. The result was on revenue of $21,158,728, which is 23.5 per cent up on the corresponding 1987 half-year and 2.5 per cent up on the half-year revenue to June 30, 1988.

In the latest half-year

$159,890 was written off in goodwill ($142,500 in each of the previous two half-years).

Tax was $206,144, compared with a credit of $80,507 in the June half-year and a $389,197 payment in the December 31, 1987, half-year.

Extraordinary items contributed $134,361 in the latest period, giving a bottom-line result of $1,084,968, compared with $1,234,811 in the 1987 half-year and $360,962 to June 30.

Mutual Pacific’s chairman, Mr David Coxhead, said conditions had stabilised with strong demand for the group’s products. The company will pay an

interim dividend of 3.0625 c (6.5 per cent) payable on April 21. The dividend last

year was 52.5 c a share (2.5 per cent). Mr Coxhead said Mutual Pacific had concentrated on financial products associated

with its two leasing subsidiaries, Avis Car Leasing in New Zealand and Leaseway Transportation in Australia. The latter was bought during 1988. Fixed assets, in hire-pur-chase advances and loans and leased assets, rose 102 per cent to $53.6M, from December 31, 1987, to December 31, 1988. Borrowings rose 108 per cent to $44.9M.