a healthy increase in profit for the current fiscal year.

The company is forecasting $700,000 profit, or 62 cents per share, for the year ending March 31, 1996 -- an increase of 51 percent over last year's results.

Audited profit for the year ended March 31, 1995, was $462,112, or 41 cents per share.

BAS/ASB made the prediction in its recent results for the quarter ended September 30.

The company is also predicting year operations income of $800,000 compared to audited $743,509 a year earlier, an increase of eight percent.

"The forecast for year to March 31, 1996 figure is a best estimate based upon circumstances we are aware of as of (November 14),'' the company said.

For the second quarter, ended September 30, the company's profit was $657,514, or 58 cents per share, compared to $581,979, or 51 cents per share, for the same quarter a year ago, an increase of 13 percent.

Income from operations for the quarter was $660,754 compared to $591,965 -- an increase of 12 percent.

The company's board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of eight cents per share to shareholders of record on October 27. This was payable on November 17.