No more capital raising for Moa this year; also no breakeven forecast

Friday 3rd August 2018

New Zealand’s only NZX-listed boutique beer brewer, Moa Group, has no further capital needs “for the foreseeable future” and continues to see a breakeven result “on the horizon”, executive chair Geoff Ross told the company’s annual meeting in Auckland.

Addressing around 50 shareholders, Ross acknowledged “pretty sluggish growth” in sales during the last financial year, when Moa reported revenues of $10.45 million and a total loss of $2.55 million, with both figures up slightly on the previous year.

The company had recently quadrupled its sales force through creation of a joint sales team with Constellation Brands, New Zealand’s third-ranked wine distributor, called Mobev (Moments and Occasions in Beverage) in response to supermarket buyers’ demand for suppliers who understood liquor buyers’ motivations rather than the products themselves, Ross said.

Supermarket sales had lifted strongly “in the last four weeks”, he said, but declined to give any definitive forward-looking statement about performance in the current financial year.

Asked by one shareholder when the company expected to achieve breakeven, Ross said that in the absence of statements to the stock exchange, he was unable to give a target timeline, but said it remained “on the horizon” for the company.

Moa was founded in 2003 and has reported losses consistently since a controversial listing in November 2012 after an initial public offering at $1.25 a share that raised $15 million.

Moa shares were trading this afternoon at 45 cents, having lost 8.16 percent of their value in the last year.

Having raised an additional $1.92 million in new capital since year-end, Ross said the company would not need to raise further capital “in the foreseeable future,” in answer to a question from a representative of the New Zealand Shareholders Association.

Moa had high hopes for its new distribution arrangements in the Chinese market and was making its first foray into branded venue representation later this year, when Moa will be the flagship brand at a new 500-seat seafood restaurant at the old Sanford’s fishmarket in the Viaduct Basin area of the Auckland waterfront. The venue will be close to the base for the next America’s Cup regatta.

(BusinessDesk)

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