Bridgecorp Limited Continues Strong Growth

7 October, 2005

Bridgecorp Limited Continues Strong Growth With 50% Profit Lift

Specialist property financier Bridgecorp Limited has continued its sustained strong growth in New Zealand with a lift in operating profit to $29 million for the year ended 30 June 2005.

The company’s full-year financial result released today reports an after tax operating profit of $18.9 million, up 50 percent on the previous year. Revenues from lending activities were up 13 percent to $86 million.

Total assets were $556.1 million, up $33.3 million, funded by total liabilities of $474.2 million and equity of $81.9 million, up 22%. Equity at 30 June 2005 was 14.7% of assets, up from 12.9% last year.

Bridgecorp Group Managing Director Rod Petricevic said the excellent result maintained the company’s momentum of recent years.

“We are well positioned to move forward over the coming year as we continue to receive strong support from investors and borrowers.”

Mr Petricevic said Bridgecorp’s solid track record in New Zealand had enabled it to build strong foundations for growth and it continues to evolve and adapt to the changing needs of the market. “We have the agility to embrace change to ensure we are always offering exceptional customer service and products that satisfy both our investors and borrowers alike.

“Although there has been a slight softening of the property market over the past year, we continue to be presented with quality lending proposals. We have also been able to grow our investment book off the back of continued support from investors for our fixed interest products, despite fierce competition for retail investment money.

“At the same time, we have focused on operating the business in a more cost-effective and efficient manner which has resulted in a reduction in expenses. We achieved better than a 6% saving in operating expenses and in addition, bad and doubtful debts were down by nearly 50% to $2.1million. With these sound fundamentals in place we have every reason to feel very confident about the future, and another strong year in 2006,” he said.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to best practice”, Mr Petricevic said “Bridgecorp has developed a new visual identity, communications platform and internal value set based on the concept of ‘good financial sense’. New advertising built around this theme was introduced in August 2005 and is showing us very pleasing results.”

ENDS

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