SkyCity and Auck Airport drag market down

In a busy day of company disclosures, SkyCity Entertainment Group and Auckland International Airport helped drag the New Zealand sharemarket down after falling short of investors' expectations.

Thursday, February 20th 2025, 6:35PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index closed at 12.880.36, down 153.00 points or 1.17% on Thursday. Across the whole market, there were 41 gainers and 91 decliners, with 40.4m million shares worth $155m changing hands.

The index remained 1.43% down this year, while the benchmark across the Ditch, the S&P/ASX 200, rose 1.34% up for the year an hour before closing.

Seasons greetings

Matthew Goodson, managing director and portfolio manager at Salt Funds, said the country’s analysts had their work cut out on Thursday as they rushed from meetings to investor calls and back to meetings in a race to digest results.

With Air NZ, Auckland International Airport, Precinct Properties NZ, SkyCity, and Vital Healthcare all reporting, there was a lot to monitor.

On balance, Goodson said company results “definitely” surprised on the downside and that it shows in the share movements.

After reporting its half-year result, Auckland International Airport dominated the day’s trading with almost $14m worth of shares. The company finished 3.44% down on $8.15.

Goodson pointed out that the price is nearing the $8.08 per share the Auckland Council’s $1.31 billion stake was sold for in December last year.

“I think there are a group of analysts, particularly Australian-based funds, that just got far too optimistic on the rate of passenger recovery,” he said.

SkyCity shares had a steeper decline, falling 7.53% to $1.35 on volumes of just under $6m in value traded.

For the six months to Dec 31, underlying net profit was down 41.5% to $37.8m due to earnings and costs travelling in opposite directions. The casino operator said ongoing “challenging market conditions” weighed on its first-half result and lowered its full-year guidance.

“From being a blue chip in our market a few years ago, it is not owned by quite a lot of people these days,” Goodson noted, adding there is a "standout weakness" in Auckland relative to the company’s other segments.

Precinct Properties, which controls a $2b property portfolio, likewise fell 2.02% to $1.215 after it reported total comprehensive income after tax of $3.2m for the six months to December, down from $12.9m this time last year.

Chief executive Scott Pritchard told BusinessDesk after the result that the company had interest from office occupiers and strong demand for premium-grade space.

Vital Healthcare was down 0.8% to $1.85 after reporting a net loss of $39.3m for the half year to December, an improvement on its $113.1m loss at the same time last year.

The lucky few

Meanwhile, Air NZ’s shares rose 0.8% to 64 cents after it announced earnings before tax of $155m for the six months to Dec 31, down from $185m in the same period a year earlier but at the upper end of previously issued guidance.

While the headline result looks strong, Goodson said questions remain over quality.

“It tends to be a register that's dominated by retail shareholders, so I'm not quite sure they’ve picked through the details below what appeared to be a decent top-line profit.”

The national carrier also announced a share buyback scheme targeting up to $100m worth of its shares.

Vulcan Steel joined Air NZ in the green, which added to Wednesday’s gains by crawling up 0.91% to $8.90.

Other forces

Fletcher Building fell 2.39% to $3.27 after it reported and announced it would cut 500 jobs on Wednesday.

Goodson said that Fletcher’s would ordinarily be “a go-to stock” at this stage of the cycle when things have been tough, and their outlook is a bit better.

“There’s been quite a lot of buying on that theme ... But, the business is still extremely messy,” he said, citing a note in SkyCity’s disclosure revealing another claim against Fletcher Building relating to its NZ International Convention Centre.

Despite that, Fletcher’s remained up 13.15% in the year-to-date.

Ebos shares continued to trade in high volumes after Wednesday’s result and the surprise announcement that its CEO, John Cullity, would step down after 15 years at the company. He will be replaced by Adam Hall, who is expected to start the role on July 1. Ebos was at $39.30, down 1.75%.

Goodson said the Reserve Bank of NZ’s (RBNZ) decision to reduce the official cash rate (OCR) by 50 basis points on Wednesday showed little influence on the day’s trading.

“That's sort of ancient history in terms of market pricing now,” Goodson said. “The focus is very much on the results.”

Tags: Market Close