egolinews.com

Goodman Fielder Limited (GFF) this morning said it was expecting to incur a non-cash writedown of around NZ$16 million ($13 million) on its deferred tax assets following a change to tax regulations by the New Zealand government. However the owner of many major grocery brands, including Wonder White and White Wings, said that the New Zealand tax changes would have positive impact on the company’s bottom line from FY12.

Under the changes, the New Zealand government has scrapped building depreciation for tax purposes, while reducing the corporate rate of tax from 30% to 28%.

Managing director, Peter Margin, said it would not affect the company’s underlying profitability or ability to maintain its dividend payout.

Meanwhile the company said that including the writedown, it was expecting a post-tax profit to be in the range of $158 million to $165 million, down from $177 million last year.

However, not including one-offs, normalised net profit for the full year would be in the range of $181 million to $188 million, up from $166 million in the previous corresponding period.

At 1121 AEST, Goodman Fielder shares were trading up 2c to $1.395.

Filed under:
Consumer Staples, News and Views by egoli