Hellaby Holdings stock soars 20% on BBQ sale

Hellaby rose 27 cents to NZ$1.62 today, having halved in value the past 12 months. The company agreed to sell BBQ Factory to a group led by private equity investors Capital Group and two of the chain's managers, it said yesterday.

"The fundamental for the company are starting to look quite promising," said Alan Moore, who helps manage about NZ$230 million at Milford Asset Management in Wellington.

The sale and share price gain may mark a turnaround for the company which posted a full-year loss in 2007, a year in which its former CEO resigned and Hellaby's wrote down the value of BBQ Factory by about NZ$19 million.

The company hired John Williamson as CEO, replacing David Houldsworth. Moore said he was "very impressed" with Williamson's strategy for the company.

Hellaby also withdrew a legal claim against parties involved in the original purchase of BBQ factory, it said yesterday.

"Our businesses have generally been performing very well including, in particular, our subsidiaries in the automotive parts, industrial equipment and packaging divisions, as well as the Hannah's retail shoe business," Williamson said. "They will not only meet or exceed their targets for this year but will also comfortably beat last year's performance."

The company announced it has hired Neil MacCulloch as group general manager for operations, who will assist in strengthening the Hellaby's balance sheet. MacCulloch is a former CFO of Metlifecare.

Costs associated with BBQ Factory would shave about NZ$5 million from the company's pretax earnings. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization will be about NZ$40 million, it said.

Hellaby stock gained even as it dropped out of the NZX 50 Index today, replaced by Pike River Coal.

By Jonathan Underhill

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name:
Your email:	Not displayed to the public
Comment:
Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved.

Anti-spam verification:

Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

Hellaby buys Sydney-based Ryde Batteries for about A$12 mln to boost largest unit
Hellaby FY profit falls 5.8 percent , meets guidance; Contract helps lift sales
Hellaby shares fall 2.7 percent after halt for $40M placement lifted
Hellaby halts shares for $50M capital raising at 10 percent discount
Hellaby first-half profit falls 21 percent on weaker shoe sales, corporate costs
Hellaby finally finds acquisition in Contract Resources
Hellaby lifts FY profit 26 percent on equipment, automotive divisions
Former Frucor head Mark Cowsill named to Hellaby board
Hellaby Holdings
Hellaby lifts 1H net profit 42%