Fletcher Building in trading halt, seeks $700m in capital raise

Fletcher Building - going to the market for cash. Photo / Getty Images

Troubled dual-listed building giant and manufacturer Fletcher Building has gone into a trading halt, announcing it wants to raise $700 million.

The company announced details this morning.

“The equity raise is being undertaken as a prudent measure to strengthen the company’s balance sheet and improve financial stability and resilience in the current challenging environment,” it said.

The company expects market conditions to eventually recover but an improved financial position would help it focus on operational performance, reduce pressure to sell assets and maintain its investment credit rating.

Fletcher plans to issue 292 million new shares.

The equity raise will be at a fixed price of $2.40 a share, a 17% discount to Friday’s closing price on the NZX.

Speculation arose in Australia in the past few days about how the company would get out the “begging bowl” for the “emergency” capital raise.

The Australian Financial Review and The Australian reported the struggling building giant’s investment bank Jarden would be tapping investors for cash.

Fletcher Building in August announced a group net loss after tax of $227 million, a turnaround after last year’s $235m profit.

It cited construction legacy provisions and losses from its civil business Higgins and Australian plumbing operation Tradelink, which it has agreed to sell.

Significant items from continuing operations were $333m due to a $117m non-cash impairment and writedown in the carrying value of Higgins and $180m in provisions for its legacy construction projects including the NZ International Convention Centre.

No dividend was paid for the full year, whereas last year the company paid 34cps.

The $227m net loss was caused by $180m legacy provisions, $100m Higgins NZ impairment and write-down and $141m loss from discontinued operations at Tradelink.

The company cited $376m construction legacy outflows “mainly due to the NZICC steel remediation costs”.

In May, the company cited poor trading conditions, intense price competition and lower building product sales to downgrade its full-year profit forecast from $540m to $640m Ebit before significant items to $500m to $530m.

Conditions in the company’s second half prompted that. Net debt by June 30 was forecast to be $1.9b to $2b.

Fletcher cited a combination of weaker revenues and gross margin pressure in certain building products businesses, notably Iplex NZ and steel, where markets were especially soft.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.