GNE Group pretax profit rises on gains from unit sale
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Thursday, 19 March 2009 |
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Petrol station operator GNE Group posted a surge in 2008 pretax profit
helped by a gain from the sale of its petrol retailing business and
sites, and said it recommended shareholders to accept the offer from
Norcliffe Investments.
However, pretax loss from continuing operations widened to 3.3
million from 183,000 pounds a year ago. For the year ended Dec. 31, the
company posted a pretax profit of 14.6 million pounds ($20.3 million),
compared with 1.0 million pounds a year ago. Revenue rose marginally to
168.2 million pounds
GNE recorded a gain of 17.3 million pounds in October from the sale of
its major operating subsidiary Petrol Express Ltd for 51.7 million
pounds. This led to a rise in GNE's net assets of around 53 percent to
36.8 million pounds.
In December, GNE had said it planned to convert itself into an investment company in the technology sector.
Norcliffe Investments, which made a 190 pence-per-share offer for GNE
last week, is an acquisition vehicle formed by the company's director
Martyn Ratcliffe and North Atlantic Smaller Cos Investment Trust
Plc. Ratcliffe is also the chairman of software company Microgen
Plc
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