Floods bring wins as well as woe

The reconstruction effort after the Queensland floods will be huge. Photo / Getty Images

Fletcher likely to gain business as a result of damage but firm has had problems too

Australia's deadly floodwaters could be a boost and a burden for New Zealand's largest listed business.

Fletcher Building, with a market capitalisation of $4.8 billion, stands to gain from the huge reconstruction exercise, supplying many housing products which will be in high demand from the disaster expected to cost billions of dollars.

But a Fletcher executive said yesterday that the Queensland operations had been hampered and more damage could be in store. Philip King, investor relations general manager, dismissed widespread losses from the flooding but outlined problems.

"The good news is we have not sustained any significant damage to any of our plants. However we have seen business disruption due to staff not being able to get to work, shifts being cancelled and also interruption to delivery of inbound materials and outbound products.

"Approximately 7.3 per cent of total group revenues are derived in Queensland. Short term, we expect some disruption to trading across our Queensland businesses, but expect some pick- up as a result of the repair and rehabilitation work that will be required. We do not have an estimate at this stage of what it might mean for us, and this won't be able to be calculated until final damage assessments have been done across the state and the amount of rebuilding and repair work has been quantified," King said.

Infrastructure and major industries such as mining, homes and businesses have been damaged across 75 per cent of Queensland and Victoria is now being hit.

Fletcher operates in its Australasian home base, the South Pacific, Asia, North and South America, Europe and the Middle East.

It has cited the rebuilding of earthquake-hit Canterbury and fixing tens of thousands of leaky homes in New Zealand as drivers of its growth, indicating the upside of disasters for its many businesses.

IN THE ZONE

Fletcher's Queensland businesses:
* AHI Roofing
* Fletcher Insulation
* Rocla Pipeline Products
* Rocla Quarry Products
* Stramit Building Products
* Tasman Sinkware
* The Laminex Group

Source: Fletcher Building