By Karen Chan
Profit from the sale of Noel Leeming and Bond & Bond put Pacific Retail Group back into the black for the year to March 2005.
But the result masked earnings otherwise dominated by the continuation of heavy losses at British electrical goods chain PowerHouse.
Pacific Retail reported
a $46.6 million profit for the 2005 financial year, recovering from its 2004 loss of $22.6 million with the help of a one-off profit of $86.7 million generated by the August sale of the appliance retailers and stablemate Big Byte.
Without that, the group recorded a trading loss of $20.2 million, including a $51.4 million loss from a full year of owning PowerHouse. The comparable $2.1 million loss for the group in 2004 only included seven months' contribution from PowerHouse- even so, that contribution was a $46.4 million loss.
"Hindsight is always a wonderful thing," chairman Maurice Kidd said of PowerHouse's performance. "We're disappointed it is taking as long as it is to get back to break even ... but the trends are in the right direction."
PowerHouse recorded a $12.2 million loss in the second half - short of the company's original target of breaking even for the period but an improvement on the $41.1 million loss for the second half of 2004. Investors said the result was in line with expectations and contained no surprises.
PowerHouse is forecast to make another operating loss in 2006 but continues to target break even in 2007.
Pacific Retail Finance reported a trading profit of $24.5 million, up from $14.9 million the year earlier. But with a "for sale" sign out, it may not remain within the group for long.
Bendon, the lingerie business seen as the company's growth hope, reported a fall in trading profits to $5.5 million, from $10.7 million in 2004.
Pacific Retail will not pay a dividend and, in March, proposed the repurchase of $62.7 million of secured capital notes it had issued.
