Business
Rothmans Inc. Reports Increased Sales and Earnings for Fiscal 2005 and Announces Special Dividend of $1.50 per share
Rothmans Inc. Reports Increased Sales and Earnings for Fiscal 2005 and Announces Special Dividend of $1.50 per share.
About this update from Pantera Silver Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\n\n Annual Results\n Fiscal Year Ended\n March 31, 2005\n\n Trading: TSX: ROC\n\nTORONTO, May 20 /CNW/ - Rothmans Inc. today reported results for the\nfiscal year ended March 31, 2005. The Company also announced that the Board of\nDirectors has declared a special dividend of $1.50 per share in addition to\nthe regular quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share.\nRothmans' earnings for the year ended March 31, 2005 were $93.0 million,\nor $1.38 basic earnings per share compared with $90.3 million, or $1.34 basic\nearnings per share in fiscal 2004.\nSales at 60%-owned Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc., net of excise duty and\ntaxes, were $636.8 million for 2005 compared with $620.1 million a year\nearlier, an increase of $16.7 million. The increase was primarily due to\nhigher volumes in the cigarette price category, combined with increased prices\nacross all product categories.\nInvestment income was $4.2 million for fiscal 2005 compared with\n$3.8 million a year ago as a result of higher average cash balances during the\nyear.\nRBH's EBITDA margin increased to 43.8% compared with 43.4% in the\nprevious year. The increase in margin was due to increased sales volumes of\nprice category cigarettes, higher prices across all product categories,\nreduced tobacco leaf costs and reduced sales and marketing expenditures which\nmore than offset reduced premium cigarette and fine cut volumes.\nRBH's share of the total composite market increased to 29.5% compared\nwith 24.4% in 2004 as a result of increases in both the premium and price\ncategories. Its share of the premium cigarette market increased to 15.5%\ncompared with 14.6% the previous year due to the reduced size of the premium\nmarket as RBH's competitors repositioned brands from the premium to the price\ncategory.\nAlthough RBH increased its share of each sub-category, RBH's share of the\ntotal price category was 46.3% in fiscal 2005 compared with 47.9% in the prior\nyear as a result of the change in relative volume contribution from price\ncategory cigarettes and fine cut products to the total price category. RBH's\nshare of the domestic price cigarette category was 41.5% for the year, up from\n39.4% in 2004. Share of the domestic fine cut market was 59.6% versus 57.6%.\nDuring 2005, the Company paid dividends of $70.9 million, or $1.05 per\nshare on a post-split basis compare...