Forum Archive Index - March 2000

["hugh webber" <hugh.webber@clear.net.nz>]

Shotover Jet. Seems to illustrate that all that is tourism does not 
glitter. The Chch Gondola has now become barely profitable, thank
goodness - its very well done and it would be a real shame to see it
go. The Chch Trams are not profitable but I think are subsidised by
The Peoples Republic of Chch. Then there's rafting/jetboating etc
and I think there was a disastrous foray into trout pools in Rotorua.
I don't think it will be a strong recoverer but other people could well
have a lot more info than me.

South Eastern Utilities. I've lost track, the last I knew it was sitting 
on a heap of cash after selling out at a profit from its electricity
investments, waiting for a good investment to come along and bite
it in the bum. As one didn't the price drifted down below the net cash
asset per share. A perfect target for Sir Ron. Pending.

St Lukes Group. A different sort of commercial ppty, big suburban
shopping malls and some big expansion plans - the Riccarton one 
is supposed to be expanded to become the largest in the country later this
year.
There have been questions on Sharechat as to why its share price
isn't performing despite the good yield and growth. A good question.
Its actually got a rather lower yield than office & ppty shares showing
it is more favoured than those. Might need to change its name to St
lukes.com.

Steel & Tube. 51% owned by BHP I think and I think BHP was looking to
off-load it.
Bought into a parallel Canadian operation at BHP's behest as S & T had some

cash at the time but the Canadian outfit is not brilliantly profitable.
Yet.
Should expand with the economy and maybe when the ownership is resolved.

Summit Resources. I know nowt. Someone else can comment.

TENZ. Intuitively appealing to me as the capital gains exempt index share
of the NZSE top 10 set up by the NZSE itself. Since then its been viciously
attacked and boycotted by green eyed sharebrokers etc to the point where
the NZSE was forced to offer to sell it. Reasonably good yield and perfect
for those who don't want to worry about exchange rate fluctuations or
switching
shares but don't want to be done over by the sharks wearing Fund suits.
I was unable to get into the TENZ part of the NZSE site, possibly due to
the above mentioned spat.

Trans Tasman. It was mentioned on Sharechat that its share backing is about
3 times the share price.
Its a fairly large commercial ppty share operating in both Oz & NZ, it may
be the largest - not sure.
Used to be Robt Jones Investments once, one or two mergers along the way
since then.
Sir Ron had a large go at a stack of its convertible notes which had
unfortunately
inappropriate conversion terms and I'm not sure if that diluted the shares.
Has just
given itself a bath on asset write downs to clear the decks for future
action
which paints an artificial loss situation. Still hasn't resumed dividends
but it can't
be too long now can it? Anyone have any ideas on %'s tenanted here and in
Oz/

Tranz Rail. Supposed to be a barometer of the NZ economy. Now free of the
Westport
jetty threat and still hanging fire on its new South Island terminal near
Grasmere.
Subject to occasional summer challenges on the Cook St run. Seems to be
quite
well run now. Shoud be a solid performer and medium recoverer.

Waste Management.  A well run coy but very low gross yield I see. Anyone
know why?
Where there's muck there's money they say but ther don't seem to be much in
the way
of divvies. Its parent in the US which is having a few problems and is
apparently not as
well managed as its subsidiary here is trying to sell out which affects the
price. Shades of Wang
perhaps.

Wrightson. It, plus Reid Farmers have ben bruited as the ones to get into
to take advantage of
the rural recovery. Sir Ron has recently raided it because of this but play
seems to have
stopped for the day. Has had some stupid trendy management reorganisations
incl
selling off its most profitable finance arm. Now recovering under new new
management. No
dividends at the mo.

Well, thats it, look forward to your comments and picking up some more info
myself.

cheers,
Hugh

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sharechat.co.nz/          New Zealand's home for market investors
To remove yourself from this list, please us the form at
http://www.sharechat.co.nz/forum.html.