Mainfreight year profit rises to $6.6m

By NZPA

Wednesday 12th June 2002

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Courier-freight firm Mainfreight Ltd said today its March year net profit rose 171 percent to $6.6 million.

The result was on lower revenue of $401.1 million compared with $410.8 million in the year ago period.

Ebitda performance improved 27.6 percent to $24.4 million.

The pre-tax operating rose to $12.9 million from $6.5 million and tax provided rose to $4.4 million from $2.7 million.

Earnings per share rose to 9.05 cents from 3.35.

An unchanged 3.5 cents per share dividend will be paid on July 19.

A better performance in Australia, where operations in the previous year dragged the company down, and a continuation of good performances in the majority of other business units contributed to "this more than satisfactory result", the company said.

"Significantly we now have profits at the ebitda level of $2.4 million from our combined operations in Australia.

"This is an important step for our future as we grow our business, particularly our growth off-shore."

The company was in a positive mood.

"We have established ourselves very well in Australia, Asia and the United States, as well as continuing to grow our very good operations here in New Zealand.

"While our off-shore results are still far from satisfactory, we have established our brands and networks in readiness for our future growth."

Mainfreight said it expected returns to continue to improve significantly from their finish in the 2002 financial year.

The Australian domestic operations improved from an ebitda loss of $5.5 million from $2.3 million.

"While still far from satisfactory, we have made considerable progress in Australia. We have eliminated much of the poor revenue contributors as a result of restructuring the customer base and increasing our rate structures," the company said.

Ebitda profit at the Australian international division rose 56 percent to $4.7 million with revenue up by $4.38 million and margins improved.

Subsidiaries, Lep International and Mainfreight International improved their ebitda to $2.6 million from $1.87 million.

New Zealand domestic operations performed satisfactorily with ebitda holding steady around $19.4 million. The transport divisions had experienced healthy trading conditions with a further improvement of ebitda by 2.6 percent.

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