Convention centre woes hammer Fletcher's share price

Fletcher Building slumped nearly 7% after a further $165 million blowout on the New Zealand International Convention Centre, but the sharemarket showed resilience by finishing flat.

Monday, February 5th 2024, 6:38PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell sharply midway through the day after the Fletcher announcement but recovered to close at 11,928.7, down 2.53 points or 0.02% after reaching a low of 11,844.93.

There were 55 gainers and 82 decliners on the main board with 18.16 million shares worth $79.24m changing hands.

Matthew Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said the market did remarkably well despite strong falls in Australia and China.

“It is continuing the trend of not slavishly following offshore leads," he said.

Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had declined 1% to 7622.5 points at 6pm NZ time, after last week reaching its all-time high. The Shanghai Composite Index continued its poor run, down 1.82% to 2680.47 points.

The index fell 6.2% last week, its biggest weekly loss since October 2018 and has declined more than 8% since the start of the year.

Goodson said there were concerns about China's economy, particularly the property sector, and officials may have to provide further support for the sharemarket.

At home, Fletcher Building fell 30c or 6.61% to $4.24 after telling the market it was making an additional $165m provision to complete the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) by the end of the year. Added to that is a $15m provision for remediation at the Wellington International Airport car park.

Fletcher said actual and expected costs for the final stage of the NZICC project had increased mainly in the areas of steel remediation, internal fit-out and installation of operating systems. Higher levels of subcontractors were required, it said.

The country’s largest construction company was still pursuing more than $100m under the NZICC third party liability insurance policy, and no revenue under the claim would be included in the half-year financial statements.

The Hobson St hotel component of the build was scheduled to be handed over to SkyCity this month.

Goodson said the provision – “a decent chunk of money for them” – represented 16c a share post-tax and Fletcher’s share price was down nearly double that on concern about its balance sheet.

“Fletcher has been taking one provision at a time, there was no update on the Iplex pipe situation in Australia, and it doesn’t fill the market with hope that there will be no more provisions,” he said.

Utilities software firm Gentrack, a favourite for Australian growth investors, rose 36c or 5.3% to $7.10 and neared its all-time high of $7.15 achieved on Sept 1, 2018. Gentrack reached a low of $1.32 on Sept 27, 2022.

Ebos Group was down 41c to $36.59; Mainfreight shed $1.30 or 1.84% to $69.21; Ryman Healthcare declined 7c $5.68; Turners Automotive decreased 10c or 2.15% to $4.56; and NZME gave up 3c or 2.9% to $1.

Precinct Properties decreased 2.5c or 1.98% to $1.24; Synlait Milk gave up 2c or 2.38% to 82c; Ventia Services declined 8c or 2.27% to $3.44; Smartpay was down 4c or 2.56% to $1.52; and Bremworth shed 3c or 4.62% to 62c.

In the energy sector, with bond yields increasing, Mercury was up 14.5c or 2.18% to $6.795; Meridian gained 4c to $5.56; Contact was down 8c to $8.10; and Manawa declined 10c or 2.33% to $4.20.

Chorus, down 2.5c to $7.94, confirmed plans to extend fibre broadband to another 10,000 premises at a cost of $40m, with a third of the investment occurring in the next regulatory period of January 2025 to December 2028.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gained 60c or 2.46% to $24.95; Michael Hill rose 5c or 5.75% to 92c; Scott Technology increased 4c to $3.20; Accordant Group was up 3c or 3% to $1.03; and CDL Investments collected 2c or 2.56 per cent to 80c.

NZ King Salmon Investments gained a further 1.5c or 5.17% to 30.5c, after climbing from 22c at the end of December.

Third Age Health rose 8c or 5.88% to $1.44 after earlier reporting a 98.6% increase in net profit to $525,000 for the third quarter compared with the previous corresponding period. Group revenue was up 18.4% to $3.8m and Third Age was paying a third-quarter dividend of 3.31c a share.

Tags: Market Close