St Laurence Property & Finance profit falls

St Laurence Property & Finance have reported a fall in half year net profit, but said it was on track to beat last year's full year net profit.

The company posted a net profit of $920,000 for the half year to September 30, down from a $3.37 million net profit for the same time last year.

A fully imputed interim dividend of 3.015c was declared.

Despite the profit fall, total group operating revenue was up, rising to $20.2 million compared with $16.9 million for the previous September half.

The company recognised a bad debt expense of $3.5 million during the period.

Chief executive John Mallon said the group was on track to beat last year's full year net profit of $18.06 million with the anticipated gains from the sale of its stake in aged care company Elrond Holdings.

The company has conditionally sold its shareholding in Elrond for over $16.5 million. The book value of the shareholding as at September 30 was $4.8 million.

The sale is expected to go unconditional over the next two weeks and the profit of about $11.7 million will be included in the results for the full year to March 31.

Since the September 30 balance date St Laurence has bought HP House in Auckland for $24.75 million and has also bought a residential subdivision project in the Hunter Valley, Australia for A$10.7 million ($11.4 million).

St Laurence Property & Finance is a wholly-owned subsidiary of St Laurence Holdings.

- NZPA