AMCIL (AMH), the 4th of the listed investment companies associated with Australian Foundation Investment Co (AFI) reported yesterday and shareholders will not see a repeat of the special payout a year ago, but directors have neverthless increased the final payout from the 2013-14 figure.
The company told the ASX yesterday that net profit rose a solid 11.1% to $7.0 million in the year to June. That includes a $900,000 benefit from the BHP Billiton demerger of South32.
AMCIL will pay a final dividend of 4.0 cents per share fully franked, up from the 2.5 cents a share paid a year ago. But there’s no repeat of the 4 cents a share special dividend paid a year ago.
AMCIL doesn’t pay interim dividends, so the total for the year of 4 cents a share against 6.5 cents for 2013-14.
The higher profit was struck on an 8% improvement in revenue (excluding capital gains) to $8.3 million.
Net tangible assets at 30 June 2015 were 91 cents per share, down from 95 cents at the end of the previous corresponding period, in both cases before allowing for any final or special dividend.
"AMCIL’s portfolio, including the full value of franking credits distributed with the dividend, returned 5.1% over the year whereas the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index return on the same basis was up 6.8%,” directors said.
The 10 year return of the portfolio was 14.3% per annum compared to the Index return of 8.5% per annum on an equivalent basis. Over recent years, after-tax realised gains from the portfolio have added to the generation of franking credits for dividends.
Directors said the largest positive contributors to the portfolio over the past year included Transurban, TPG Telecom, Lifestyle Communities, Telstra and Incitec Pivot. Holdings with the largest negative performance were Oil Search, Santos, BHP Billiton, Senex Energy, Tox Free Solutions and ALS.
A number of new holdings were added to the portfolio. These included Sonic Healthcare, Asciano, Sims Metal Management, iSelect, Veda Group, CSG and Federation Centres.
Sales included positions in small energy companies and those with business exposure to the resources sector as well as a lightening of positions in some larger companies such as Transurban, Coca-Cola Amatil and Westpac.
