Stocks to watch: APN, Air NZ, Cavalier

Friday 15th October 2010 1 Comment

APN has appointed a new chief executive, Air NZ is likely to face increased competition for domestic flights, while Cavalier today issued over a quarter of a million shares to existing shareholders as part of its dividend reinvestment plan.

APN News & Media (APN): The Australia-based publisher of the New Zealand Herald and operator of the Radio Network, appointed Brett Chenoweth as its new chief executive officer. He replaces Brendan Hopkins who retires at the end of this year. Chenoweth is currently managing director and head of Asia-Pacific for The Silverfern Group, a New York-based specialist merchant bank. Shares were unchanged yesterday at $2.62.

Air New Zealand (AIR): The national carrier is likely to face increased competition after Jetstar announced it has joined forces with American Airlines to share domestic New Zealand services. The new codeshare agreement applies to domestic services between Queenstown, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland and represents 116 weekly flights. Shares were unchanged yesterday at $1.30.

Cavalier (CAV): New Zealand's only listed carpet maker today issued 278,756 new ordinary shares to existing shareholders as part of their dividend reinvestment plan. The shares were offered at $2.94 apiece, calculated as the volume weighted average of all trades on the NZX between Oct. 4 and Oct 8. Shares rose 2.7% yesterday to $3.05.

Goodman Property Trust (GMT): The listed property investor announced that it has completed the refinancing of $400 million of debt for its portfolio worth $1.47 billion. The refinancing includes $75 million of GMT's main debt facility with ANZ National Bank, and $281.0 million of other debt facilities together with a $45.0 million wholesale bond issue. Shares were unchanged at 98 cents yesterday.

Michael Hill International (MHI): The jewellery manufacturer and retailer is rated "accumulate" after first quarter sales figures showed strong same-store sales growth in all its markets, according to Forsyth Barr analyst Guy Hallwright, quoted on the ShareChat website. New Zealand sales growth was 12.8%, the strongest quarterly growth since early 2008, while Australian sales were up 9.1% in local currency terms and Canada's were up 28%. Shares fell 1.4% yesterday to 71 cents.

Telecom (TEL): The Commerce Commission announced today it has launched an investigation into an alleged breach by Telecom of its Separation Undertakings. The investigation will assess whether Telecom Wholesale is likely to have discriminated against telecommunications providers in favour of Telecom Retail. Shares rose 3% yesterday to $2.08.

Themes of the day: Declines on Wall Street were led by banking shares amid concerns that an investigation into the mortgage industry's foreclosure practices could hurt earnings. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.6% to 1,171.37 in early afternoon trade. The news comes ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke which is expected to give markets more guidance on whether the bank will embark on a second round of asset purchases. The kiwi fell to 75.61 US cents from 76.31 cents yesterday, and dropped to 66.79 on the trade-weighted index of major trading partners' currencies from 67.24.

Businesswire.co.nz

Comments from our readers

On 15 October 2010 at 10:12 am GH said:

Good 'news' for APN they opted to bring fresh eyes and ears into their empire. I think this will be an interesting space to watch, particularly the NZ arm.