Flood dilutes Tower guidance
Tower has downgraded its profit guidance on the back of the financial impact from the Canterbury floods.
The insurer said it had received 164 claims from last week’s floods and it estimated the cost to be between $2.8m and $3m before tax.
At is half-year result Tower forecast underlying net profit after tax of between $25m and $27m for its full financial year assuming the cost of large events was $9.7m.
But the floods meant its cost for large events was now assumed to be $14m resulting in its profit guidance dropping to between $22m and $24m.
Despite the profit drop Tower said its combined half and full-year dividend pay-out would remain between 5c and 5.5c a share.