Shares in truck and trailer equipment supplier and manufacturer Maxitrans were one of the stars yesterday in a dull market.

After an upbeat earnings update, the shares soared more than 20% as the company confirmed it was about to close off a strong second half year result.

The shares jumped 23%, or 4c, to 23.5c on the news that unaudited internal management accounts and projections showed a 140% rise in underlying net profit after tax for the second half, compared to the figure for the second six months of the 2010 financial year.

"As a result, the Board is of the opinion that underlying net profit after tax for the full year to 30 June 2011 will be in the order of 50% lower than the pcp," the company told the ASX in yesterday's update.

"After a net non-operating profit of $0.5 million comprising gains on the sale of the properties and the first time consolidation of MTC ($2.2 million), less estimated restructuring costs ($1.7 million), reported net profit after tax is expected to be approximately $4.0 million compared with $5.8 million in the prior year."

The company saw an underlying net profit after tax of $1.0 million for the December 31 half year. After restructuring costs of $1.7 million ($1.2 million after tax), a net loss after tax of $198,000 was reported against a net profit in the prior corresponding period of $2.6 million.

"The balance sheet has strengthened further during 2H11 on the back of property sales and solid operational cash flows.

"Net debt at 30 June 2011 is expected to reduce to approximately $10 million from $21.9 million at 30 June 2010 and accordingly net debt to equity will fall to approximately 10% from 25% in the prior year.

"As a result of the implementation of various strategic initiatives and our strong balance sheet position, we continue to be very well positioned to benefit from an improvement in the economic and trading environment and to pursue incremental investment and expansion opportunities,.

"As foreshadowed in the half year results announcement on 18 February 2011, product demand in 2H11 was expected to continue at similar levels as 1H11 in the absence of improvements in the general Australian economy.

"Despite subdued economic conditions in a number of segments of the Australian economy, year to date order intake for FY11 has improved on the position at the half year.

"Whilst order intake in Australia for trailers has remained relatively flat, order intake for vans and tippers has improved. This is especially notable in agricultural tippers.

"Order intake in New Zealand has continued its strong run and the Colrain parts business is performing extremely well and is on track to deliver a record contribution to Group results," the company said.

And Tabcorp Holdings says it has agreed to raise $US460 million ($429.38 million) in debt from the US private placement market for the proposed holding company of its casino businesses.

The debt raising is conditional upon the demerger of Echo Entertainment Group from Tabcorp at a shareholders meeting tomorrow.

The debt raising by Echo will involve the issue of $US100 million of notes maturing in seven years and $US360 million of notes maturing in 10 years.

The proceeds will be converted to Australian dollars to reduce the size of Echo's $1.4 billion syndicated bank facility.

Tabcorp shares closed up 2c at $7.84.

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