Port of Tauranga profit up 15.6pc

Port of Tauranga has 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 per cent on the $22.4 million profit recorded a year earlier. The company will pay a dividend of 22c a 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 per cent owned by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and 20 per cent owned by utilities investor Infratil, last traded up 5c 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 where $67 million was returned to shareholders through a one-for-eight share cancellation at $7 a share.

The result was based on total revenue of $110.3 million, 43.8 per cent higher than last year. That number was buoyed by the inclusion of figures for recently acquired Owens Services.

Total cargo throughput rose 11.2 per cent to 11.4 million tonnes. Container traffic rose 12.5 per cent to a record 322,516 TEUs (twenty-foot-equivalent units).

- NZPA