Toronto, November 25, 2005 – BNN Split Corp. announced today that income available for distribution for the year ended September 30, 2005 was $12.5 million, compared with $11.1 million last year. For the current year investment income increased from $11.4 million to $12.7 million due principally to dividends received on 3 million additional Brookfield Class A Limited Voting shares acquired in the 2004 fiscal year. The company receives a quarterly dividend of US$0.15 per share on its investment in Brookfield Asset Management Inc. For the quarter ended September 30, 2005, income available for distribution was $3.2 million consistent for the same period in 2004.
For the year ended September 30, 2005, the company paid dividends of $11.8 million and $0.7 million to its preferred and Capital shareholders respectively, compared with $9.5 million and $2.4 million for the prior fiscal year.
The Board of Directors declared quarterly dividends of $0.390625, $0.309375 and $0.06284 per preferred share Class A, and Class AA Series 1 and Capital share of the company, respectively, payable on December 7, 2005 to shareholders of record on November 22, 2005.
The net asset value per unit, consisting of one Preferred share and one Capital share, was $100.12 based on a Brookfield share price of $54.14 as at September 30, 2005. The net asset value per Preferred share is posted monthly on www.bamsplit.com.
STATEMENTS OF INCOME AND DEFICIT
| |
(unaudited)
|
|
|
Three months ended September 30
|
Year ended September 30
|
| $ thousand, except per share amounts |
2005
|
2004
|
2005 |
2004 |
Income
|
|
|
|
|
Investment
|
$3,217
|
$3,226 |
$12,678 |
$11,397 |
Expenses
|
|
|
|
|
Operating
|
(21)
|
(7)
|
(195)
|
(337)
|
Income available for distribution
|
3,196
|
3,219
|
12,483
|
11,060
|
| Dividends paid on Senior Preferred shares |
(2,943) |
(2,943) |
(11,773) |
(9,526) |
Share issue costs
|
-
|
-
|
- |
(3,026)
|
Income available for distribution on Capital and Class A shares
|
253
|
276
|
710
|
(1,492)
|
Dividends paid on Capital shares
|
(257)
|
(600) |
(710) |
(2,400) |
| |
(4)
|
(324)
|
- |
(3,892) |
Deficit, beginning of period
|
(7,770) |
(7,450) |
(7,774) |
(3,882) |
Deficit, end of period
|
$(7,774) |
$(7,774)
|
$(7,774)
|
$(7,774)
|
Dividends per Senior Preferred share - Class A
|
$0.3906 |
$0.3906
|
$1.5625
|
$1.5625
|
Dividends per Senior Preferred share - Class AA
|
$0.3094
|
$0.3094
|
$1.2375
|
$0.5359
|
BNN Split Corp. owns a portfolio consisting of 17,654,200 Class A Limited Voting Shares of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (“Brookfield”) (formerly Brascan Corporation) in order to generate quarterly fixed cumulative preferential dividends for the holders of the company's Preferred shares and to enable the holders of the company's Capital shares to participate in any capital appreciation of Brookfield Shares. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is a specialist asset manager. Focused on property, power and infrastructure assets, the company has approximately US$40 billion of assets under management. Brookfield is listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the symbols BAM and BAM.LV.A, respectively.
Sachin G. Shah, Chief Financial Officer, will be available at (416) 363-0061 to answer any questions on the company's financial results.
This news release contains forward-looking statements concerning the company's business and operations. The company cautions that, by their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty and the company's actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Reference should be made to the most recent Annual Information Form for a description of the major risk factors.