months of the year by nearly 40 percent.

And while the improved profitability was boosted considerably from a one time gain, the company reported a very successful operating result.

Bermuda Home president and CEO, Arthur Haycock, explained: "It should be noted that this includes a one-time gain of $686,000 from reinstating the carrying value of our investment portfolio to original cost, a gain not to be repeated in the second half of this fiscal year.

"If this gain, together with last year's drop in the valuation of our investment portfolio is excluded from the year-to-year comparison, we still would report an increase in net income from operations of close to 20 percent.'' The company said preliminary results for the first six months of the year indicated solid growth in most business lines.

Mortgage closings should be about 15 percent higher than in 1996, while new consumer loans should be running 25 percent ahead of last year. Customer deposits continues its growth, but at a slower pace.

And real estate arm, Bermuda Realty's earnings have improved, largely as a result of increased commission income on real estate sales.

Next month the company converts to a new multi-currency, comprehensive software system from US company FISERV Inc., to replace Home's current general ledger, deposit, mortgage and loan and teller systems.

Home's programme of buying their own shares back for cancellation has been a success since it began in March. By late September, 38,000 common shares or eight percent of the total number of outstanding common shares and close to 14,000 or 1.5 percent of preferred shares outstanding have been purchased by the company.

Over that six month period, the common share price rose 18 percent from $7.50 to a high of $8.875 late last month, with Home noting the general improvement in share prices of most major companies listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

The buy back programme is continuing.

The directors have declared an 11-cent per share second quarter dividend for the three months to September 30, to shareholders of record on that date. A dividend of 20 cent per share has been declared on the 8% convertible preferred shares to shareholders of record October 15, payable October 31.

BUSINESS BUC