Tenon weighs possible sale as strategic review attracts buying interest

Tuesday 27th October 2015

Tenon, which sells wood mouldings in the US, is looking at a possible sale after a strategic review to boost shareholder value attracted buyer interest.

The Taupo based company said the review, managed by Deutsche Craigs and Deutsche Bank, was running to plan and since its announcement it had received 'in-bound' interest from undisclosed third parties.

"We now need to investigate that further, in order to determine whether a sales path provides the best risk-adjusted value outcome for shareholders," chairman Luke Moriarty said in a statement. "Accordingly we have asked Deutsche Bank to proceed with just such a process."

Tenon hired the investment bank in August to conduct a strategic review with the goal to come up with a "risk-adjusted path most likely to close the share price value gap" and has previously discussed the potential to list Tenon on a US stock market, where it has competitor peers whose shares trade at higher multiples than Tenon has achieved on the NZX.

After more than a decade of losses, Tenon last year turned a profit as the US home-building sector began to recover, and announced its first dividend in 17 years in August. The company derives 90 percent of its revenue from the US, where home construction fell into a prolonged trough after the 2006 sub-prime mortgage crisis and subsequent global financial crisis. The rebound in the US housing market, where a builders' confidence index is at a nine-year high and new home permits are at an eight-year high, and the depreciation in the New Zealand dollar against the US currency, boosted Tenon's income in the 2015 financial year.

The company is gunning for growth in full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 53 percent, accelerating from earnings growth of 18 percent to US$13 million in the year ended June 30.

Tenon shares last traded at $2.45 and have more than doubled over the past two years, having dropped as low as 50 cents in the late 2000s.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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