Centrepoint resumes dividends, looks for growth
Publicly-listed financial planning group Centrepoint Alliance will resume paying dividends after announcing a return to profit in the first half of the current financial year.
The company announced to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today earnings of $2.1 million compared to a loss of $400,000 in its prior first half.
The company said it was proposing a fully-franked dividend of four cents per share comprised of a three cent special dividend and a one cent interim dividend.
Commenting on the outcome, Centrepoint Alliance chairman, Alan Fisher said the company had continued to improve its operating performance and was now well positioned to participate in industry consolidation and to seek new strategic opportunities.
“We have continued to focus on organic growth and refining our cost base, as is evident in the first half operating results,” he said. “We are now actively pursuing opportunities to unlock the value of the busin3ss that can be achieved through scale.”
“Centrepoint Alliance has significantly improved its financial position over the three years since the Company paid out $15 million in cash dividends in the 2018 financial year. The company has a history of returning excess capital to shareholders, having declared a special dividend of 0.07 cents per share when it sold its insurance premium funding business in the 2017 financial year.”
“In light of Centrepoint Alliance’s strong operating results, the Board has resolved that is now in shareholders’ best interests that the Company should not only resume the period payment of ordinary dividends, but also return excess capital to its owners,” Fisher said.
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