Dorchester Pacific has lifted its earnings guidance for the current year, as it awaits Turners Auctions' response to its $82-million takeover offer.
The financial services company says it now expects a pre-tax profit of $11.5 million for the year ending March next year. That's up from its previous guidance of between $10-11 million.
The forecast doesn't include an expected one-off tax gain of $1 million or about $1.1 million of special dividends from Turners, which is a condition of the takeover offer.
It also doesn't include an expected one-off gain of about $6 million from the uplift in value of Dorchester's existing near 20 percent stake in Turners, should the takeover proceed.
Dorchester chief executive, Paul Byrnes said the company's trading was still reasonably competitive.
"We're pretty pleased that all the four trading divisions are performing at or slightly above forecast."
Dorchester has left its pre-tax forecast for the year ending March 2016, unchanged, at $15 milloin but that doesn't include any contribution from Turners, beyond dividends from the existing 20 percent stake.
