Northlake, Winton's property project at Wanaka. Photo / Supplied
Newly listed property development business Winton Land declared its interim result this week but financial metrics show declines in all headline numbers because of the timing of sales and other factors which boosted the previous result.
Winton, which raised $350 million in its initial public offering in December, saw all headline numbers fall.
It made $92.7m revenue in the six months to December 31, 2020 but $44.3m in the half-year to December 31, 2021.
Revenue fell 52 per cent, the company said, because of the timing, volume and value of settlements during the current compared to the prior period.
As well, Winton had a 48 per cent drop in the volume of units settled because of lower transactions at Lakeside, its Te Kauwhata project in the Waikato. Settlement volumes were higher in the previous period.
The value of units also declined 8.5 per cent because of the mix of products sold between the two periods.
Operating profit dropped 84 per cent from $18.4m to $2.8m and net profit after tax fell 87 per cent from $10.4m to $1.3m.
"Winton delivered $44.3m in revenue for the first half of FY22, a 52.2 per cent decrease from H1 FY21, reflecting the timing, volume and value of settlements during the current and prior periods," it said.
The volume of units varies from year-to-year depending on the number and size of projects under development and the development life cycle of each project, the staging of construction works, the level of pre-sales and the underlying market.
There were 47.8 per cent fewer units settled in the latest first half, it noted.
But the company remains upbeat about its prospects, saying it has 28 projects in 12 areas.
Trade declined too, from selling 245 units in the previous half-year to 128 in the latest period.
The amount of money Winton got on each property unit fell from an average $378,000/unit previously to $346,000/unit in the latest period.
Winton generates revenue from the sale of residential lots, houses, townhouses and apartments.
Winton said the decrease in profit was offset by a lower income tax expense: that fell from paying $4.2m previously to paying just $1m in the latest period.
Administrative expenses were up, though, from $4.9m previously to $5.5m.
Revenue guidance has been issued for the year to June 30, 2022 forecasting $158m and the board said this week is reaffirmed that.
Coffers swelled from the big IPO.
"As at December 31, cash and cash equivalents were $347.9m, compared to $35m at June 30, reflecting funds from the capital raise received in December," the company said.
Total assets were $596m and total liabilities $173.3m.
Net cash at the end of December was $250.2m.
Chief executive Chris Meehan said: "We are in a strong position going into the second half and look forward to settling some significant projects during the period. Our pre-sale book is market-leading and continues to grow, outpacing settlements by $86m this year to date. At December 31 we had reached $720m in gross pre-sales and have continued to build on this, achieving $738m as at February 18."
Winton shares are trading at $3.50, giving a market capitalisation of $1b.
Port of Tauranga has posted a 15.6 per cent lift in group net profit on steady cargo volumes in a half year of continuing supply chain upheaval.
New Zealand's biggest port and main export gateway said group net profit after tax for the six months to December 31 was $56.3 million compared to $48.7m in the same period last year.
Operating revenue increased 16.7 per cent to $186m because of changes in container mix and higher container revenue. However, operating expenses also rose, by 17.5 per cent, swelled by increased rail, labour, fuel and electricity costs.
The company will pay an interim dividend of 6.5c per share, up 8.3 per cent on the same period last year.
Based on first-half performance, the NZX-listed company expects full-year earnings in the range of $103m-$110m, compared with $102.4m in the 2021 financial year.
Subsidiary and associate company earnings fell by 11.2 per cent on the previous same period, partly because of changes in the group's accounting for the Timaru container terminal.
Associate logistics company Coda Group's performance improved significantly from the previous year and Quality Marshalling produced strong financial results, said the company.
Total trade decreased by just under 3 per cent, with a 2.7 per cent increase in imports to 5 million tonnes offsetting a 2 per cent fall in exports to 8 million tonnes.
Container volumes increased 1.5 per cent to 622,271 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalents).
Log exports were down 6.1 per cent at close to 3.1 million tonnes. Direct dairy exports increased 2.3 per cent to just over 1 million tonnes and direct kiwifruit exports were up 16 per cent on the same period last year. Oil product imports fell 10.4 per cent in volume, while fertiliser imports were up nearly 12 per cent. Grain and feed imports increased 22.1 per cent.
Outgoing chair David Pilkington said the mid-year results reflected the resilience of the port's diverse portfolio of cargoes and income streams along with changes to the container mix.
Disruption across the supply chain would be exacerbated by the Omicron outbreak, he said.
Pilkington, who this week announced his July retirement after 17 years on the board, nine as chair, gave the RMA process and the Government a serve over lack of progress in getting the regulatory green light for a "critical" container ship berth extension.
The "glacial pace" of the regulatory process was "extremely frustrating", he said.
"The Resource Management Act processes fail to recognise the critical nature of this infrastructure project and the Government's unwillingness to expedite the resource consent is very disappointing."
The port has said with freight volumes ballooning, it risks running out of capacity in 2024-2025 if it doesn't get the all-clear for a start soon on the berth extension, planned since 2018.
The application for a resource consent is now awaiting a hearing date in the Environment Court, after being declined for the Government's shovel-ready and Covid fast track infrastructure project programmes in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
The project has lost a year through these unsuccessful processes, the port has said. The berth will take up to 2.5 years to build.
Chief executive Leonard Sampson said the port had continued to grapple with global supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic, while preparing for more operational issues should Omicron spread in the Bay of Plenty.
Congestion during the traditional busy December month had been considerably less than in 2020, in part because KiwiRail had reinstated the number of trains destined for the port's Auckland inland MetroPort to 92 per week from 72 the previous year.
Import demand remained elevated, with the number of containers transferred by rail to and from Auckland increasing nearly 21 per cent, Sampson said.
Ship visits were up 3.5 per cent at 684 vessels.
Trans-shipments, however, continued to be suppressed because of limited shipping options, changes to vessel rotations, delays and congestion.
The outlook for the second half of the year was uncertain, Sampson said.
"We believe we have done everything we can to prepare for the inevitable disruption of a large Covid outbreak. However, the upheaval of widespread illness and employee isolation requirements is being felt worldwide, not just in New Zealand."
'Developers are a good target for a council under financial pressure.' - Steve Evans