Iluka makes $89 million return

Iluka has reported a net profit after tax and outside equity interest of $89.3 million for the 2004 full-year, a 4.8 per cent increase on the previous year’s result.

The company posted a full year return of $85.2 million for 2004.

Iluka will pay a final 2004 dividend of 12 cents a share, franked to six cents, on April 12 to all shareholders registered at March 31.

While the final result was a mild improvement, Iluka managing director Mike Folwell announced to the Australian Stock Exchange that: “The company’s underlying performance has improved considerably over the past 12 months as evidenced by a $27.2 million (30 per cent) increase in pre-tax profit to $118 million.

“Excluding the profit impact from the revaluation of the 2003 US private placement borrowings ($14.1 million gain in 2003 and a $9.1 million loss in 2004), pre-tax profit increased by $50.4 million (66 per cent) compared with 2003,” he said.

Group sales revenue in 2004 was $819.6 million, an increase of 4.3 per cent on 2003.

Sales revenue consisted of $785.4 million from titanium minerals and zircon sales and coal sales of $34.2 million – increases of $32.5 million and $1.1 million respectively.

Jubilee Mines recently announced its half-year profit, posting a net result of $45.2 million.

That result will allow the company to maintain a 20-cent fully franked interim dividend.

The result is down on the $53.5 million from the previous corresponding period, something the company says is due to the dramatic nickel prices that influenced last year’s record profit.

Pre-tax profit was $66 million.

Shipbuilder Austal has announced a half-year result of $21.6 million profit after income tax and outside equity interests.

This is a marked increase on the $3 million reported for the corresponding period last year.

The completion of the 10-vessel Yemeni contract and high levels of production activity are understood to be behind the improvement.

The company’s operating profit included a write-back provision in the Austal Group Management Share Plan loans of $1.3 million and R&D tax allowance of $4.8 million.

As at December 31 contracted commercial and defence orders offered still to be recognised revenue of $386 million through to 2007.

Austal has also initiated an American Depository Receipt Program to take advantage of US investor interest in the shipbuilder’s expansion activities in the US.

Internet service provider iiNet has announced a $1.9 million net profit for the half-year ended December 31.

Consolidated revenues from ordinary activities were $64.1 million, a 74 per cent increase from the corresponding period in 2004.

This increase is attributed to the growth in iiNet’s customer base following its purchase of Virtual Communities in October and full contribution from ihug, which was acquired midway through the previous corresponding period.

Alliance Finance Corporation has posted a net profit of $1.5 million for the first-half, up 22 per cent on the corresponding period.

The company enjoyed a 9 per cent increase on the first half of financial year 2003 on total value of loans written to $140 million.

The majority of new lending through the half-year was for the funding of insurance premiums, since the major part of the company’s asset finance business – the funding of school notebook computers – tends to be in the third quarter of the financial year.

Total revenue was up 29 per cent on the previous corresponding period to $7.57 million.

Wesfarmers shareholders have approved a capital return of $1 per share.

The capital return comes a week after the company announced a half-year profit of $291.2 million, a result slightly down on the $296.7 million from the corresponding period.

That corresponding result did not include the profit on the sale of Landmark.