Washington H Soul Pattinson (SOL), the other half of the linked duo with Brickworks, was hit by weakness in the resources sector in the year to the end of July.
The company, which reported its 2013-14 results yesterday, saw a fall in earnings, despite stronger results from associated companies, TPG Telecom (TPM) and Brickworks (BKW).
Soul Pattinson reported a regular profit of $123.2 million for the year to July 31, down sharply from the $160.7 million in 2012-13.
But statutory net profit was up 26% to $131.7 million for the year, due chiefly to one-off write-downs which reduced the previous year’s result.
Chairman Robert Millner said the company’s diversified portfolio provided some protection against the downturn in mining.
“WHSP’s diversified portfolio of investments continues to provide it with protection against the continued volatility from a number of sectors of the economy,” he said in yesterday’s statement.
“This year, we saw improved results from telecommunications, building products and property, which have largely offset lower results from resources."
The worst performer was the company’s copper mining subsidiary CopperChem, which made a loss of $38.7 million, up from the $20.9 million loss in the 2013 year.
New Hope Group’s (NHC) contribution to WHSP’s profit dropped from $44.2 million a year ago to $34.9 million, due to low coal prices.
But the company’s 43% holding in Brickworks delivered a $23.3 million contribution to profit, up from $13.6 million a year ago, due to increasing demand in the building products market (see separate story).
And TPG Telecom lifted its contribution for the year to $46.2 million to profit, up from $40.2 million.
Soul Pattinson announced a fully-franked final dividend of 29c per share, up from 28c per share a year ago.That brought the full year’s distribution to 48c a share, up from 46c the previous year.
The shares rose half a per cent $14.28.
