Sandalwood producer TFS Corporation has announced a record net profit after tax of $55.7 million for the year ended June 30 and appointed a new chairman.
Patrick O’Connor will take over as chairman from chief executive Frank Wilson who has held the role since former chairman Richard Alston left in September for unexplained reasons.
TFS’s profit, which is up 115.4 per cent over last year, has allowed it to pay shareholders a fully franked dividend of 3 cents per share, after the company scrapped its dividend last year.
In December last year shareholders attempted to spill the board because of corporate governance and performance concerns and demanded answers for why Mr Alston left.
Shareholders had sought to remove Mr Wilson and non-executive directors Julius Matthys, Stephen Atkinson and former cricketer Adam Gilchrist.
Mr Wilson said in a statement that the last financial year had been one of significant achievement.
“The much improved FY13 result and the reinstatement of dividend payments is a confident signal that TFS is now well into a positive transition phase where we will emerge in the near future as a major global producer of sandalwood,” he said.
“Sharp price rises for sandalwood combined with improving yields in subsequent harvests underpin our confidence that shareholders and investors can look to the future with increasing confidence.”
TFS also announced it will begin harvesting its first Indian sandalwood from its Kununurra plantations this September.
TFS’s total revenue increased 48 per cent to $187.7 million and EBITDA increased 117.8 per cent to $51.8 million.
The increased revenue was largely due to three institutional investors agreeing to reinvest in additional plantations, strong sales to high net worth Australian investors, and the collection of a large debt which helped TFS increase its direct ownership of plantations by 110 per cent to 1,346 hectares.
TFS’s shares were up 23.4 per cent to 58 cents after the announcement.
Mr O'Connor is a non-executive deputy chairman of Perilya Limited, chairman of Xceed Resources and Bravura Capital and a non-executive director of SAS Telecom.
"We are delighted to have someone of Patrick's experience join the board as an independent non-executive chairman," Mr Wilson said.
"This concludes a thorough search to find someone of his calibre to assist the progression of the company in the next exciting phase of our corporate cycle."
