Rangatira Limited Company Results

Rangatira Limited Company

Rangatira Limited, the Wellington-based investment company, achieved a net surplus after tax of $5.1 million for the year ended 31 March 2003 (last year $9.6 million).

Murray Gough, Rangatira’s Chairman, said that the Company had had a challenging year. Operating earnings after tax increased to $3.9 million from $2.4 million in the previous year, but the value of Rangatira’s substantial listed equity investments in Australia and New Zealand fell in line with those markets. This, together with valuation writedowns to the Company’s Auckland property and two small unlisted companies, negatively impacted the result by $4.6 million. Mr Gough noted that last year’s result included a gain of $7.2 million from realisation of some longstanding investments, while this year’s figure includes a gain of $5.8 million from further realisations.

The performance of Rangatira’s actively managed unlisted investments has been sound, with strong results in Polynesian Spa Ltd and Vita NZ Ltd. Rangatira continues to seek opportunities to invest in unlisted businesses where it can actively contribute to ongoing performance.

Directors have declared a final, fully imputed dividend of 14 cents making the total ordinary dividend for the year 29 cents per share (previous year 30 cents). The final dividend will be paid on 23 June 2003 and for dividend purposes the share registry will close on 13 June 2003.

Commenting on the outlook, Murray Gough said that Rangatira has a positive long term view of the New Zealand and Australian economies, although both are likely to experience slower growth over the coming year. He said that the Company’s performance is expected to be sound and to benefit further from new investments.

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