Baycorp tips rise in earnings

By Nick Stride

Friday 6th September 2002

Investors gave Baycorp Advantage's share price another hammering this week after heavy writeoffs plunged the credit services group into the red.

An ill-signalled $A309.1 million ($363 million) of writedowns caught the market by surprise but managing director Keith McLaughlin shrugged them off.

In response to a "please explain" from the Australian Stock Exchange he said, "The expectation of the restructuring and integration costs and goodwill amortisation" was disclosed in last year's merger information memorandum.

He said the company's core earnings in the year in which Baycorp merged with Data Advantage rose 17% and declared himself comfortable with analysts' forecasts of a 30% lift this year.

The June year net loss of $A299.9 million sent the shares to a low of $3.85 on Tuesday, from $4.35 before the announcement. The December merger created goodwill of $A457 million, of which Baycorp wrote off $A288 million. The company also wrote off $A66 million of the $A341 million carrying value of its database.

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