Port of Tauranga records $26 mln full year profit

By NZPA

Wednesday 28th August 2002

Port of Tauranga today posted a net after tax profit of $26 million for the year ending June 30 and announced it will make a two-for-one share split.

The result is up 15.6 percent on the $22.4 million profit recorded a year earlier. The company will pay a dividend of 22 cents per share on November 1.

Port of Tauranga said it will make a two-for-one share split, doubling the number of shares on issue to 133.8 million. The split will occur on November 8 and is designed to increase liquidity, marketability, and the number of shareholders.

Shares in the port company, 55 percent owned by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and 20 percent owned by utilities investor Infratil Ltd, last traded up five cents at $7.80.

Chairman Fraser McKenzie said the past year was another important one for the company in terms of the further development of its business, and the reorganising of its capital structure that saw $67 million returned to shareholders through a one-for-eight share cancellation at $7 a share.

"The higher volumes of cargo handled, the increasing diversity of shipments and the purchase of the business of Owens Services BOP Ltd are all indicators that the nature and complexity of the business are changing," he said.

Today's profit was based on total revenue of $110.3 million, 43.8 percent higher than last year. That number was buoyed by the inclusion of figures for Owens Services.

Total cargo throughput for the year rose 11.2 percent to 11.40 million tonnes and the port's container traffic rose 12.5 percent to a record 322,516 TEUs (twenty-foot-equivalent units).

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