Perpetual continues profit and dividend growth
26 Feb 2002
Perpetual Trustees Australia Ltd has today announced that it has increased operating profits for the half-year to 31 December 2001, and has lifted its interim dividend.
Profit after tax and before realised gains on sale of investments was $25.9 million compared to $19.2 million for the same period last year-an increase of 35 percent.
The group's net profit after tax (including realised gains on sale of investments which incorporated the sale of the Fund Services business to Royal Bank of Canada) was up 44 percent to $39.5 million. This compared to $27.5 million for the corresponding period last year.
Mr Charles Curran chairman of Perpetual, said that the board has elected to increase its interim dividend to 50 cents per share fully franked-up 43 percent over last year's interim dividend of 35 cents per share.
"Despite the market uncertainties faced by the group during the past six months, we have been able to continue our track record in recent years of increasing our profits and our dividend," he said.
"The group has continued to generate strong cash flow from its operations, with our earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increasing to $46.9 million, up from $40.7 million last year-an increase of 15 percent," Mr Curran said.
Commenting on operations, Perpetual's managing director Mr Graham Bradley said the result reflected the group's success in focusing on its core business strengths in wealth management and corporate trust.
"Revenues for the half-year were $118.5 million-compared to $141.7 million for last year. The lower revenues for this period reflect the sale of the Fund Services business and the change of ASX Perpetual Registrars (APRL) to associate status. Removal of these revenue sources has been offset in part by growth in our wealth management and corporate trust businesses," Mr Bradley said.
"Our wealth management business has reported a solid result. In particular, Perpetual Investments continued its strong performance, with total funds under management increasing from $15.6 billion at 1 July 2001, to $17.6 billion at 31 December 2001. At 31 January 2002, funds under management had further increased to $18.2 billion. The highlight of the period was the strong performance of our investment management team, particularly in Australian equities.
"Perpetual Investments was recently named Morningstar Fund Manager of the Year 2001-the second consecutive year we have won this coveted award," Mr Bradley said.
"Personal Financial Services attracted an additional 190 portfolio management clients who entrusted a further $185 million to our care, and inflows into the Select Mastertrusts continued to track well.
Mr Bradley said that the Perpetual Corporate Trust division maintained its securitisation market leadership with $46 billion in assets under securitisation at 31 December.
"The business won a number of significant new mandates from new securitisation clients including Mirvac, AMP Henderson, Investa, Australand and ING," he said.
"Looking forward, if markets continue to perform well we expect our wealth management and corporate trust businesses to achieve a good result for the balance of 2001-2002. Our profits depend significantly, however, on the value of financial assets under management. Accordingly, any serious market decline would affect our outlook adversely.
"We are confident the Perpetual brand, our service commitment and careful cost management will enable us to continue our good performance," Mr Bradley said.