This is despite a mixed bag of performances within the Dunedin City Holdings Ltd (DCHL) portfolio this year.
As expected, the biggest hit to DCHL's bottom line came from lines company Aurora Energy, which reported an almost $11million loss for the year.
This served to effectively cut DCHL's profits in half, to $10.4million from $24.3million last year.
Aurora is engaged in a substantial investment programme to rebuild its network through Otago and the Central Otago Lakes district.
The upshot was that $62million (2018: $78.4million) was spent on new network assets, which boosted assets to $580.4million but also increased term borrowing by $46.8million to $301.4million.
This helped push DCHL operating company borrowings up by $64million to $384million, at balance date, compared with the book value of assets of $1.35billion.
The star of this year's performance was again City Forests Ltd, which recorded a $25.2million profit on the strength of high log prices and a lower New Zealand dollar. It paid a higher-than-expected dividend of $8million.
DCHL paid $5.9million in interest to the council, although no dividend was payable.
DCHL chairman Keith Cooper said although the results were "modest" there had been no consideration of either asset sales or acquisitions at this stage.
"We are shifting, however, from strictly governing assets to actively providing performance recommendations to our shareholder," he said.
In its results, Aurora had also made provision for financial penalties of $5million arising from the Commerce Commission relating to "breaches of network reliability standards" over the past four years.
Mr Cooper said that although the actual penalty was yet to be determined, the provision made at the balance date remained a "prudent estimate" of the likely outcome.
Contracting business Delta, whose main client is Aurora, also had a challenging year, reporting an under-budget $1.9million from revenues of $97.3million, 4.9% up on 2018 revenue.
Dunedin Venues Management, which manages Forsyth Barr Stadium, reported nominal profits of $160,000 despite having a busy year across a number of high profile concerts including Kendrick Lamar, Pink, Shania Twain and the Eagles.
"The return should be seen against the backdrop of the high cost of bringing events to Dunedin, and also taking into account the overall economic benefit of $39 million to the city," Mr Cooper said.
Dunedin Railways Ltd also had a challenging year, losing $122,000, due to increasing spend on repairs and maintenance to ageing equipment and assets.
Mr Cooper said the railway company, which operates the Taieri Gorge, Seasider and Silver Fern railcars, would be presenting a four point "sustainability plan" over the next several months, focused on increasing profitability and "filling up trains".
He said although the railway was "not without its challenges", it remained an important part of the Dunedin scene.
Dunedin Airport enjoyed a busy year, passenger numbers being up 4.5% to almost 1.1 million, generating revenue of $17.2million and profits of $3.6million. It will pay a dividend of $1.4million.
