Skellerup shares dive while delivering record first-half

Rubber goods manufacturer Skellerup announced a positive first-half result, but its share price still fell as investors expected more from the company.

Thursday, February 16th 2023, 5:56PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 index rose 74.6 points, or 0.6%, to 12,083.12. Turnover was $101.2 million.

Skellerup’s earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) were up 3% to $33.5m for the six months ended December while net profit fell 1% to $23m.

Jarden wealth management director Greg Main said the rubber company was a strong performer and had done well.

The result was a good reflection on the company, he said, but investors were so used to the company overperforming that some had been expecting a bigger result.

“The company is going to have to execute really well in its second half to meet the market’s expectations,” he told BusinessDesk.

Skellerup ended the day falling 4.4% to $5.21.

Aged-care provider Summerset Holdings managed to jump 3.8% to $9.60 today, after falling 2.6% yesterday.

Main said the selloff had come from investors selling off shares in Summerset to buy into the newly announced capital raising of its competitor Ryman Healthcare.

More listed companies also announced damage from Cyclone Gabrielle today.

Honey manufacturer Comvita said its Hawke’s Bay facility – where a team of 13 manage an apiary branch and extraction facility – had been evacuated due to rising flood water.

It remains inaccessible at this time, the company said. Comvita was up 1.5% to $3.45 by early evening.

Carpet manufacturer Bremworth edged up 1.1% to 46 cents after it said the cyclone had impacted its Napier plant, with confirmed flooding at the site.

All other Bremworth facilities – including its Auckland and Whanganui plants – were not affected by the storm and continued to operate.

Bremworth said it had a “strong inventory position” to meet all demand requirements while the Napier plant remained offline.

“We will be making a detailed assessment of the impact to the business as soon as we are able to safely gain access to the site, and we will provide a further update following that detailed assessment.”

In a note today, BNZ Markets’ head of research Stephen Toplis said Cyclone Gabrielle had “stung New Zealand like no storm before it”.

The extent of the damage was unprecedented and had added to the “already significant” impact that parts of the North Island had experienced in the late January floods.

“Naturally, everyone wants to know what the economic impact of the devastation will be,” he wrote.

“But we will not be playing the game of making wild guesses based on massively incomplete information.”

Scales Corp fell again today – down 2.4% to $3.30 – as the agribusiness grapples with the aftereffects of Cyclone Gabrielle on its apple harvest.

New data from real estate listing firm Trade Me found asking prices for properties in Auckland and Wellington listed on its website haven’t been this low since August 2021.

Trade Me said the average asking price for Auckland properties had fallen 10.7% to $1.12m in January from the same month a year earlier and in Wellington, the average price dropped 10.5% to $872,400.

Property For Industry also fell 1.1% to $2.325 and Winton Land edged down 2.4% to $2.02. Fletcher Building dipped 1.2% to $5.01.

In a report today, Forsyth Barr analysts lowered its rating of SkyCity Entertainment from ‘outperform’ to ‘neutral’. This was due to the pending regulatory intervention into its Adelaide casino operations which is worth about 10% of its business.

Yesterday, SkyCity reported a net profit of $22.8m for the six months ended Dec 31, a far cry from the pandemic-inflicted loss of $33.7m that the casino operator had in the comparable half-year a year earlier.

SkyCity ended the day up 1.2% to $2.60.

ANZ Bank was up 0.6% to $27.37, and Westpac NZ also rose 3.4% to $25.10.

Westpac said today it was “welcoming” government regulatory changes that would make it both faster and simpler for customers who had been affected by severe weather to apply for a personal temporary overdraft.

A temporary exemption will be applied across some of the affordability requirements in the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act, which means banks will be able to speed up the finance application process for customers who need it.

Chief executive Catherine McGrath said the exemption gave banks an “additional tool” to support their customers with.

The NZ dollar was trading at 62.60 US cents at 3pm in Wellington today, down over half a cent from 63.29 US cents at the same time yesterday.

Tags: Market Close