Company gross op profits down 1.0% in Q4 COMPANY gross operating profits fell 1.0 per cent in the December quarter, official figures show. Gross operating profits in current prices and seasonally adjusted terms were down 7.6 per cent in the 12 months to December 2012, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Monday. Estimated business inventories, in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, rose 0.2 per cent in the December quarter after gaining 1.2 per cent in the September quarter. Economists were expecting inventories to have risen by 0.6 per cent in the December quarter. The estimate of income from sales by manufacturers in the December quarter, in seasonally adjusted chain volume measures, was up 0.8 per cent. Estimated income from sales by wholesalers in the December quarter in adjusted chain volumes measures was up 0.4 per cent.