Mar 2007 Financial News

Furness Releases Year End Results

Mar 22, 2007

Results for the Year Ended December 31, 2006

Furness Trinidad Limited (FUR) reported Earnings Per Share (EPS) of 68 cents for the year ended December 31, 2006 surpassing our forecasted EPS by 8 cents. This was 44.68 per cent higher than its EPS of 47 cents for December 31, 2005. This follows very successful results on its half year in which its EPS rose approximately 138 per cent to 31 cents. The second half of the year was actually better than the first as 37 cents was earned per share for this period.

The strong performance was lead by growth in Group Turnover of 33.30 per cent to $53.730 million. Its Operating Profit rose by a bigger margin of 58.36 per cent to $11.709 million while its Operating Profit Margin moved favourably from 18.34 per cent (FY 2005) to 21.79 per cent (FY 2006). Finance Costs rose 73.90 per cent to $0.873 million while Investment Income fell 4.14 per cent to $0.301 million.

Ultimately, Profit Before Tax improved 54.55 per cent to $11.137 million. The Company however saw a rise in its Effective Tax Rate from 21.34 per cent (2005) to 26.00 per cent (2006). Net Profit increased 45.40 per cent to $8.241 million for 2006.

Given these results, WISE is forecasting an EPS of 80 cents for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007. Furness shares have not traded on the floor of the Stock Exchange since March 11, 2005. However, the shares continue to trade off the floor of the Stock Exchange.


Sreshtha Tewari
WISE Research Team