Company Briefs

Friday 18th August 2000

The Warehouse completed its $A102.2 million ($133 million) acquisition of Australian discount retail chains Silly Solly's and Clint's Crazy Bargains and said the investment would return $A26.4 million a year.

Standard & Poor's raised Carter Holt Harvey's long- and short-term debt from BBB minus/A3 to BBB/A2, citing more conservative gearing, low costs, a high degree of vertical integration and strong market positions.

Carter Holt Harvey signed an agreement with China's Guangzhou Paper for the supply of "significant" volumes of pulp logs.

Mainfreight's June first quarter net profit fell to $99,000, from $1.35 million a year ago, due to costs associated with its acquisition of K&S Express. Revenue rose 36% to $96.3 million.

Rocom Wireless has completed its share offer and listed on the New Capital Market. A subsequent public offering aimed to raise $2 million to buy Rocom.

Montana applied for Commerce Commission clearance to buy its major domestic competitor, Corbans Wines, from DB Group.

CentralPower and Powerco got shareholders' approval to merge. The new company, Powerco, will begin trading on September 1. Powerco's chief executive, Steven Boulton, will be chief executive of the merged company.

The Auckland High Court criticised an insider trading case brought by Eldercare against Fletcher Challenge Energy but granted leave for the plaintiffs to represent their case.

Dairy Brands broke a profit drought with a $86,000 gain for the May year. It cited an 8% rise in production from its 14 farms in Canterbury and North Otago.

Contact Energy sold the decommissioned power plant from the Stratford station to "a US-based buyer" for $23 million, booking "a healthy profit."

Sky Network Television is looking to place 20 million shares at 399c each with institutional investors to raise $80 million to fund the expansion of interactive services over its digital pay television network.

Air New Zealand restructured the management of Ansett, including only two Ansett executives in the 21-member management structure for the combined airline. Advantage Group got a slap on the wrist from the Stock Exchange's market surveillance panel for publishing its "normalised" $6.7 million profit but not its bottom-line $2.97 million figure.

The Commerce Commission released a new policy on granting leniency to "whistle blowers" who co-operate with the commission.

Contact Energy pulled out of the bidding for South Australia's Flinders power station, saying the investment didn't meet its risk/shareholder value criteria.

Genesis Research & Development will next week issue a prospectus for a public share issue and plans to list on the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges. This follows a licencing deal with US company Medicis to market the PVAC psoriasis treatment.

The Dairy Board lifted June-year earnings before interest and tax from $440 million to $620 million on 6% higher revenue of nearly $8 billion.

Pacific Retail director Mark Hotchin admitted at the company's annual meeting he breached Securities Commission guidelines on share trading but said he had no "ill intent."

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