re: Ann: Confirmation of Interim Dividend Pay... some more info...

re: Ann: Confirmation of Interim Dividend Pay...
some more info for those interested.
tbedon

The buoyant broker market was well illustrated last week when Austbrokers announced a $6.7 million half-year net profit – up 14% thanks to organic growth and the contribution of new acquisitions.

Austbrokers saw improved revenue from underwriting agencies and was also the beneficiary of a lower tax charge. But it sees a rosy future in the midst of economic mayhem: it’s also forecasting net profit will climb 5-10% over the full 2009 financial year.

Total revenue climbed 15% to $46 million against $39.9 million in the prior equivalent period as gross profit also rose 15% from $8 million to $9.2 million.

CFO Steve Rouvray told insuranceNEWS.com.au Austbrokers wasn’t significantly impacted by the global economic crisis in the first half.

“We’re not seeing too many signs of the downturn reflected in our business as yet,” he said. “We’re expecting the overall demand for insurance to be relatively robust unless there are increasing business failures.

“Some businesses may scale back insurance covers or increase excesses to contain costs, but this should only impact us at the margin.”

CEO Lach McKeough says the core broking network continues to perform achieving a 10% growth in premiums.

“That generated a 7% increase in commission and fee income in a market where premium rate increases are only recently beginning to become evident and not yet across all classes of business,” he said.

In the six months to December 31 Austbrokers made several small acquisitions and also picked up SRG Corporate in Perth. Mr McKeough expects further acquisitions will occur as ageing industry demographics force the independents to examine succession planning.