With a 28% increase in per-share earnings, LNR has completed its 16th consecutive record quarter, topping its earnings-per-share goal for the year of $3.70 to $3.85 and surpassing the prior year by 17%.

Net earnings of 33.56 million or $1.02 per diluted share compared to $27.9 million or 80 cents per share in the same period last year.

For the year ended Nov. 30, 2001, net earnings were $135.1 million or $3.87 per diluted share versus a net of $115.9 million or $3.32 per share for 2000.

"By reinvesting our earnings, in the four short years since becoming an independent publicly owned company, we have been able to more than double our book equity per share, going from $15.70 to $32.54," LNR CEO Steven Saiontz says in a prepared statement.

The chief executive says the company's strong balance sheet was no lucky stroke. "We have been positioning ourselves for growth in the current economic environment," Saiontz says. "When the economy began slowing in the earlier part of 2001, we embarked on a program to further strengthen our balance sheet and prepare our franchise for the anticipated investment opportunities to come."

The company focused on selling matured assets and diversifying, lengthening and expanding its capital sources.

"We also slowed the pace of new asset purchases, particularly after the tragic events of Sept. 11, in anticipation of a better environment for investing as the real estate markets reacted to the downturn."

Although that strategy brought LNR a healthy balance sheet with liquidity available to fund future growth, it will also mean a non-record performance in 2002.

"We are in an excellent position to participate in the many opportunities that we suspect will develop in the year ahead," LNR president Jeffrey P. Krasnoff says in the same statement. "Our goal remains over the long term to average double-digit earnings growth by continuing to make excellent value-added investments and by aggressively managing both sides of our balance sheet."

But he says "due to the relatively moderate pace of our investing over the past several months, we expect 2002 earnings to be relatively flat compared to 2001."

Operating earnings from real estate property activities for the fourth quarter were down--$18.5 million compared to $28.8 million for the comparable 2000 period.

"This decrease is primarily due to lower gains on sales of real estate properties and lower property net operating income, partially offset by an increase in equity in earnings of partnerships and a decrease in depreciation expense," says Krasnoff.