Cape Town - Coronation Holdings, the highly rated financial services company, defied volatile global markets to romp home with a 112 percent increase in attributable profit to R330,6 million in the year to September, Gavan Ryan, the executive chairman, said yesterday.
Headline earnings, diluted by additional scrip in issue, came in 76 percent higher at R3,97 a share, the sixth consecutive year of extraordinary bottom-line growth.
But Ryan said Coronation's trading activities bore the brunt of market volatility, realising a pretax loss of R37,7 million. He expected the full loss to be covered in the current financial year.
He said these trading losses were more than offset by powerful showings from the company's international interests and associated companies like African Harvest, Trencor and Natrust (which contributed R137 million to bottom line).
Coronation Asset Management, Coronation Management Company (which increased their contribution to profit by 87 percent) and a revitalised unit trust operation also reinforced bottom-line growth in the period under review.
Ryan said Coronation, which earned almost 40 percent (last year 28 percent) of its income in dollars, mainly through Coronation Global and Coronation Overseas, would restructure to bolster its international capability still further.
Coronation Global would spearhead the international thrust, with several senior staff being seconded to Dublin under Tony Gibson, the head of Coronation Asset Management.
"The emphasis will be on establishing and growing operating units rather than acquiring existing businesses. This will make a significant contribution to Coronation's earnings over the next few years."
David Barnes, the chief executive officer, said management had not set a target for offshore earnings.
Coronation shares fell 10c to close at R85 on the JSE yesterday.