Count bounces back in second half

Count Financialhas recorded an after-tax profit of $4.72 million for the end of the 2002 financial year, which is an increase of 17 per cent above their profits for the previous year.

In a statement to theAustralian Stock Exchange, Count says the result is the sixth consecutive positive increase, and is in keeping with previously announced intentions of increasing dividends by 10 per cent.

The accounting and financial planning company says it achieved the result through a stronger second half growth of income of 14 per cent (to produce a yearly growth of 12 per cent), while cutting expenses by 10 per cent in this same half. The combination of these, Count says, resulted in an 87 per cent increase in operating profit in the second half.

The showing for the second half of the year followed a poor first half where the company experienced a fall in operating profits of 20 per cent which it attributes largely to the impact of September 11, but says it managed to bounce back through organic growth and cost control to produce an overall growth of 3 per cent for the year.

Count’s wrap account, wealth-e-account, grew by 78 per cent to $1.46 billion over the year to end of June. Count expects this growth to automatically produce increased income of 30 per cent in the current financial year even if no growth was experienced in the uptake of the wrap account.

Count says of its fledgling planning spinoff, Compound Investments, that the company remains optimistic of its success because of the problems many small dealer groups face with professional indemnity insurance and the struggle to remain independent in a changing regulatory environment.

However, the group notes that “progress has been slower than first thought” for Compound advisers or dealers to ensure compatibility with Count’s and Compound’s risk requirements. But the need for dealers to secure new licenses by March 11, 2004, together with fall out from underperforming markets, makes the directors optimistic about Compound’s development over the coming year.

Count also states that its internet-based dealer and adviser system has been rolled out to its franchisees, for which it had built or orders in the pipeline to build 174 franchisee Web sites, which represented 33 per cent of its franchisees. Count targets the 50 per cent mark of franchisees to have the badged Web sites to occur by the end of the 2003 financial year.

Count’s franchisees grew by 10 per cent during the last financial year and now number 520, the company says.