FOLKESTONE has booked a net profit of $4.3 million for the year ended June 30 2007, an increase of 135% over the previous year.
Folkestone’s chief executive Oscar Guglielmi said this is a pleasing result following a year of repositioning and implementation of the company’s growth strategy, which is designed to boost recurring income and to reduce earnings volatility.
“The company is actively seeking additional parcels of land that will deliver a diversified portfolio of projects.”
The 2007 profit result was materially impacted by the contribution from the sale of the Altona property in June 2007.
“We are pleased that our strategy of identifying strategic parcels of land was proved sound. This property was one of the last remaining large parcels of industrial land in Altona and the strong demand enabled Folkestone to realise its investment objectives earlier than anticipated,” Guglielmi said.
The company’s subsidiary Access Constructions contributed a post-tax result of $2.3 million, which was similar to the profit recorded last year.
“They remain a steady profit contributor to the overall results of the group. Access’s forward workbook at June 30 2007 was $41 million and we expect another solid performance in the coming year.” he added.
Chairman Alister Maitland said Folkestone has secured interests in medium term and long term projects that provide a strong future workbook.
“The company is targeting similar opportunities in order to establish a diversified portfolio of future development projects. The staged release of these larger scale projects should provide greater stability to the company’s financial performance.
“The outlook for the property industry in
The company announced a final dividend of 4 cents per share and a special dividend of 1.5 cps in recognition of the very strong performance.
This makes a total return of 8 cps compared to 6 cps last year.
Yesterday Folkestone ended the day 4 cents higher to close at 88 cents.
Australian Property Journal
