A boom in property sales has helped listed retirement giant Metlifecare to boost its annual profit
The company, which owns and operates 15 retirement villages, made $30.6 million after tax.
Shares in the tightly held stock were unchanged at $7.50 yesterday after a 40c rise on Friday.
Comparisonsbetween this year's profit and previous years' are difficult because of a change in balance date to bring it into line with the company's majority owners in Australia.
This year's $30.6 million profit compares with the $11.5 million it made in the six months to June last year.
But the only comparison that could be made between this year's $30.6 million profit and a previous full year showed a performance that was strong.
In the 12 months to December 2005, Metlifecare made $21.7 million, so the latest result is well up.
Metlifecare chief executive Richard de Haast and chairman Jim McLay said the company had made a string of property sales.
In the last year, it sold 106 new villas and apartments for an average $403,000.
It was also managing a booming retirement village re-sale market and had re-sold a further 261 villas that it had sold previously with an average selling price of $286,000.
The company's villages have 2287 villas and apartments and and nine "care facilities", similar to hospitals.
Three-quarters of the company is owned by two large Australian financiers that have a June balance date.
Macquarie Bank and FKP Property Group own 81.9 per cent and Fisher Funds has 11.9 per cent.
Warren Couillault, chief investment officer and a director of Fisher Funds, said he was pleased with the result.
The company had said last October that it expected to make about $30 million.
"So they've come in a bit ahead of that, which is good," he said.
"The big positive is they have a lot of re-sales. The new sales were not too much of a surprise but I was pleasantly surprised by the re-sales."
Speculation that residential real estate was in a flattening or downturn mode had little relevance to retirement villages because of demand for units from an ageing population.
The company has assets of $400.4 million, up on last year's $356.7 million.
