New Zealand based Tower Ltd
(ASX:TWR) has decided to pay its first interim dividend since 2002 after posting a 5.9% rise in profit for the half year.
Net profit for the six months to March 31, 2010, rose 5.9% to $27.9 million compared to the same time last year.
Recognising this performance, the company says it has decided to pay an interim dividend of NZ$0.04 which will be the first interim dividend since July 2002.
Tower says the strong half year result reflects good performances by all three of its businesses; Health & Life, General Insurance and Investments.
Revenue also jumped, rising 30.4% to NZ$288.9 million for the six month period.
Managing director Rob Flannagan says the company’s liquidity position is very strong with around NZ$150 million of cash balances at March 31.
This, he says, places Tower in a great position to act quickly on expansion opportunities as they arise.
Mr Flannagan says the company has investigated several opportunities in the past few months and continue to do so.
For the year to September 30, 2009 Tower reported profit of $40.63 million.
