Helicopters help lift Caledonia: Results from Exco and Bristow helped the Cayzer vehicle rise 26%

SPARKLING performances from Bristow Helicopters and money broker Exco helped Caledonia Investments, the Cayzer family's quoted vehicle, to a 26 per cent rise in pre-tax profits.

Peter Buckley, chairman, said Caledonia's wide spread of interests meant it would benefit from an improving economy. Caledonia, best known for its shrewd timing in selling a controlling stake in British & Commonwealth near the peak in 1988, has interests ranging from chemicals and newspapers to financial services and leisure.

Net assets per share ended the year to March 22 per cent higher at 681p. The shares closed yesterday unchanged at 688p.

Mr Buckley, who recently took over from Lord Cayzer, said the net asset figure understated the underlying worth of Caledonia's wide spread of investments because of goodwill write-offs, which had depressed the total by about 40p a share.

Exco's profits rose 52 per cent, boosting prospects of a successful stock market flotation next month. Caledonia owns 27.4 per cent of the company, which is due to issue a prospectus next week valuing Exco at about pounds 220m.

Exco's strong performance, together with an improvement in profits from Bristow, 44 per cent owned by Caledonia, and Sterling Industries, pushed the contribution from associated companies up by 94 per cent to pounds 23.7m.

Pre-tax profits of pounds 45.2m compared with pounds 36m in 1993. The total dividend was 16.2p, up 8 per cent.