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From: AAP
November 21, 2005

GAMING group Tattersall's says it is on track to achieve its forecast profit for the 2006 financial year as it pursues growth in the gambling sector.

Tattersall's (tts.ASX:Quote,News) said its forecast average net revenue per machine for 2005-06 was $251 per day while its actual 2004-05 average net revenue per machine per day was $242.

"Whilst the gaming market has had a soft start to this financial year, our performance for this financial year so far shows that we are on track to achieve our forecast profits for 2006," Tattersall's managing director Duncan Fischer told the company's annual general meeting.

Mr Fischer said the company's listing on the Australian Stock Exchange in July was an important development for its future.

"The listing of Tattersall's refreshes and invigorates the company with new opportunities," he said.

"It provides Tattersall's with a more modern capital structure, access to equity and capital markets, the ability to pursue growth and diversification, improved corporate transparency making it easier for governments to understand our business, and the opportunity for the public to participate in the future of our company."

He said 70 venue upgrades were planned for the current financial year.

"We plan to install 140 additional gaming machines in the network during 2006," Mr Fischer said.

"As of a few weeks ago we had 13,421 gaming machines in operation, which is in line with our forecasts."

Tattersall's chairman David Jones said the directors expected to pay a fully-franked dividend of 7.5 cents per share for the period from January 1, 2006 to June 30, 2006.

They also expected a a fully-franked dividend of 8.75 cents a share for the seven-months to December 31, 2005.

This represented an annualised dividend of 15.0 cents per share, which equated to a payout of 82.4 per cent of forecast net profit.