By FRANK ASAELI
THE Steamships Trading Co Ltd (Steamships) made a record K74 million profit for the year to December 2007, up K26.7 million, or 56.2%, from the previous year’s profit of K47 million.
This figure included Steamships’ equity accounted share of associates’ result.
Directors were anticipating that this year would be another year of growth for the company provided the current benign political and economic conditions persist.
Steamships directors advised in the preliminary final report recently on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) a profit after tax and minority interests of K74,157,000 was achieved for last year compared to a profit of K47,479,000 for the previous year, a difference of K26,678,000.
Steamships will pay its final dividend of K0.75 per share, absorbing over K23 million following the company’s annual general meeting on May 19.
This brought the total dividend paid for last year to K1.25 per share, which represented approximately 52% of the post-tax profit of the company.
This result reflected the continuing improvement in results from most businesses within the group.
Sales increased by 20.95% to K409 million against the 2006 sales of K336 million.
Depreciation last year was K35,608,000 as against K31,872,000 in 2006 and the company’s interest on borrowings was K1,761,000 as against K1,473,000 the previous year.
Steamships’ capital expenditure last year was K77,732,000 as against K70,168,000 in 2006.
It was reported that all divisions of Steamships had benefited from careful control of operating expenses.
The shipping division had a good result last year after a disappointing 2006.
The continued solid performance of the country’s economy, with its stable exchange rate and lower interest rates, meant that the group has, as in previous years, been able to continue to invest with confidence in projects and assets, particularly in shipping, property, transport and hotel divisions.