Shares in Bell Financial Group staged a solid rise yesterday in a weak market, despite strong suggestions of a fall in 2010 earnings.
Bell shares rose 5%, or 5c, to $1.06 yesterday in a market that was off 40 points or close to 1%.
The company put out a short two paragraph update which said:
"Strong second half ECM activity and consistent daily turnover has resulted in a solid finish to the 2010 financial year.
"Unaudited net profit before tax for the full 12-month period is approximately $31.5m, and unaudited net profit after tax is approximately $21.5m.
"All wholly owned business units made positive contributions towards the result."
There was no comparison with 2009 figures and the impression was that the group had done well.
But the perfunctory update in fact suggests Bell will post a 21% fall in profit when it reveals its full figures on February 19.
Bell stated 2010 net profit of "approximately $21.5 million" is 21% lower than 2009’s audited net profit of $27.3 million.
Unaudited profit before tax for 2010 of "approximately $31.5 million" was also down 21% from 2009’s audited profit before tax of $40 million.
The claim of a second half recovery is undermined by the fact that at the June 30 halfway mark, Bell said earnings were up 27% to $8.36 million, from the $6.58 million earned in the June half of 2009.
On this basis, Bell earned around $23.1 million in the last half of 2010, against more than $33.4 million for the back half of 2009.
That’s a fall of around 29%.
In fact bell earned more in the last six months of 2009 than it did in all of 2010.
