KEY POINTS:
As noted by Stock Takes last week, market operator NZX, without actually naming the companies, mildly rebuked Guinness Peat Group and for the "poor timing and lack of detail" in recent disclosures to the market, and fair enough too.
News of a potential takeover offer for SkyCity was, if not buried, then modestly proffered halfway down an announcement headed "Profit Distribution Plan and Associated Disclosure".
But at least it was there, and for those with instantaneous access to full market announcements, news of the potential bid was delayed only by the couple of seconds it took to read down the statement.
Those with access only to the delayed free service on NZX's website had to wait a further 20 minutes - during which time SkyCity shares rose 12c, or the best part of 3 per cent.
NZX's 20-minute delay in posting the full text of market announcements on its website is a minor irritation for journalists who don't have ready access to a real time feed, but Stock Takes hears that it is plainly resented by some retail investors who like to take an active approach to their portfolio.
NZX's Rowan MacRae says NZX makes price sensitive information available to everybody via its website in the form of key points that are included in the immediately available heading.
"If there is any evidence at any point that there are companies that are not including key information in that summary for real time announcement that is something that we would give our attention to."
But Stock Takes believes material information is frequently left out of those headings. Look at boring old Substantial Shareholder Notices. More often than not, they are of little interest, but sometimes they give a very useful and timely heads up on significant changes in ownership, presaging takeover offers, the accumulation of blocking stakes and even the exercise of options under fulsome executive incentive schemes and much of the salient detail is never in the heading.
MacRae says the delay for full announcements is there because "it's what our market participants have asked for".
She argues, if real time information is so important to you, you must be a professional investor and should therefore be paying for it.
Nevertheless, NZX says it "acknowledged the financial reality for retail investors more than two years ago" an offers a real-time feed for $25 per month.
Over the Tasman, the ASX makes all price sensitive announcements available instantly, in full, for free on its website - even if they are in unwieldy PDF format.
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Wind energy showing real momentum
The wind energy sector is showing signs of real momentum, with installed capacity now at 321 megawatts, which the New Zealand Wind Energy Association says is nearly twice as much as a year ago.
The association notes a further 46.5MW is under construction, and resource consents are being sought for a further 1700MW.
Earlier this year Contact Energy announced plans to spend $1 billion on 700-950MW of wind generation over the next five years and given its previously indicated time frame for lodging consent applications, an announcement of locations and capacity is likely any day now.
Infratil-controlled TrustPower has already announced it has gained consents for its 200MW Lake Mahinerangi project in Otago.
The Government's recently announced "cap and trade" carbon pricing regime, will provide the sector with a significant (ahem) tailwind, but even aside from that, at least a couple of power company bosses have said wind is economic even without that.
For all that Goldman Sachs JBWere analyst Mathew Henry reckons the economics of wind farming are, for now at least, still "marginal at best", even with the new carbon trading regime sure to boost electricity prices.
While cap in trade lowers the hurdle rate, "it does not lead to the default case that all wind farm projects are now value accretive".
NZWA's Fraser Clark says other significant factors in wind farm economics are the relationship between the developers and the turbine manufacturers, who are struggling to meet demand, and the exchange rate.
Nevertheless, given TrustPower's record of delivering shareholder value, Henry says: "We have confidence that it will not undertake the project if the economics are not positive".
Henry says the fact that TrustPower is a net retailer of electricity, i.e, it currently sells more than it generates, means the new wind farm would reduce its exposure to the vagaries of the wholesale market, which has got to be a good thing.
In all, Goldman Sachs "maintains a positive investment view of TrustPower, premised on the leverage of the company's renewable portfolios to upward pressures on the electricity price in New Zealand and the global theme of countering greenhouse gas emissions".
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Riders on the Storm
Meanwhile, the market turmoil doesn't seem to have hurt Salvus Strategic Investments' performance.
During the September quarter, which pretty much takes in the sub-prime/credit crunch period, Salvus' net asset value rose 4.1 per cent compared to a fall of 4.6 per cent in NZX SmallCap Capital Index.
Standout performers for Salvus were Methven, Abano Healthcare, Syft Technologies, and Wellington Drive Technologies. Underperformers were Dorchester Pacific and Provenco.
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Pipe and slippers
At state-owned Genesis, which operates the vital but greenhouse gas-puffing Huntly power station, Stock Takes hears chief executive Murray Jackson may not have his contract renewed when it expires in a year.
Although the bluff Australian is approaching retirement age, a Genesis spokesman said Jackson was "not reaching for his pipe and slippers just yet".
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Pin doctor
Australian boutique investment firm Absolute Capital and its investors, including those in New Zealand, are feeling further effects from the credit crunch which has stemmed from the US sub-prime crisis.
Absolute's announcement in late July that it had frozen a small Kiwi dollar fund because of its exposure to the US collateralised debt obligation (CDO) market was one of the first direct effects of the US problems in New Zealand.
While the funds remain frozen, Absolute yesterday said it had decided not to make October quarter interest payments on its separate Pins fixed interest instruments, in which New Zealanders have about $85 million invested.
Absolute managing director Deon Joubert said the "interest retention event" was the result of a lack of liquidity in the market for US and European bank loans, which is one of the complex NZDX-listed instruments' underlying investment classes.
However, by deferring the October interest payment, probably until maturity, "you get to have the product recover faster".
"The worst thing to do in a depressed market like this is to keep making the interest payments, creating a spiral. This is a protection mechanism but I know most investors will think of it a little bit differently."
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Gas pressure
While Vector chairman Michael Stiassny has laboured to give the impression the lines company's difficult relationship with the Commerce Commission is a thing of the past, it isn't.
The commission yesterday said Vector and Powerco, the other major gas network company in Auckland, were charging excessively for services and it would force them to cut prices by 15 to 42 per cent, on top of 9 per cent cuts already forced on the pair.
Last year the commission threatened to seize control of Vector's pricing, accusing it of abusing its market dominance, earning excess revenues, and undercharging the beneficiaries of the Auckland Energy Consumers Trust while overcharging others outside the AECT area.
The commission later backed off its threat to take control after what Stiassny called "behind the bike shed" meetings between him and the commission, kept secret from Vector's chief executive Mark Franklin and the rest of the board.
