Publicly-listed investment and financial services group Austock will report a small first half profit despite the general market volatility and the need to report a $4.1 million loss resulting from the collapse of ABC Learning Centres.
The group told the Australian Securities Exchange it would be reporting a small underlying operating profit and said that its cash position at the end of the half-year stood at $28 million, which was substantially the same as that reported for the full financial year ended June 30, 2008.
After referring to the one-off impairment charge relating to the ABC Learning Centres collapse, the company said there would be additional one-off items in relation to specific areas within Austock’s property business, namely, impairment of acquired intangibles affecting property management businesses acquired in 2007 and fund closure costs.
The Austock announcement said the net total of non-recurring items would be a one-off write-down of $15.4 million but claimed this would have little impact on the company’s cash position.
