STRONG FIRST HALF BY CHARTER PACIFIC
Charter Pacific Corporation (ASX: CHF) today announced that it had delivered an underlying pre-tax profit of $10.03 million for the half year ending 31 December 2004, more than double the profit it posted for the first half of last year.
The result was a 144 per cent increase on the corresponding period in the previous year where Charter Pacific posted a half year pre-tax profit of $4.1 million.
Chief Executive Officer of Charter Pacific, Kevin Dart, said the strong financial performance was the result of the company's continued delivery on its strategy of building a diverse portfolio of investments, growing the investments and at the right time crystallising them.
"This first half result continues the company's path of delivering sustained financial growth for the company and its shareholders," Mr Dart said.
"We have over the past two years been refining our strategy and as a result we believe we are now well positioned to further grow and generate superior returns for our shareholders."
Mr Dart said the first half performance was primarily the result of the company's continued strategic sell down of its equity in Metal Storm Limited. Charter Pacific has continued to execute its divestment program in the first two months of 2005, which to date has returned $60.5 million from an initial investment of $2.5 million.
Mr Dart said there were a number of positives in the first half including:
- the acquisition of a further interest in award winning independent New York-based investment bank Global Markets Capital Group, to take its holding to 39 per cent;
- an increased share in investment company Monteray Group Limited - which holds equity in innovative web-based superannuation administration application, GPen - to 40 per cent;
- maintaining its 20 per cent majority holding in biotechnology company, ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals; and
- assisting the growth opportunity of its 50 per cent interest in advanced powder coating solutions company, OEM Nutech.
"We expect that the second half of the year will deliver us continued strong results as our investments consolidate on their achievements and begin announcing significant developments," Mr Dart said.