NZ stocks: Promina listings a market first

By ELLEN READ

Royal & SunAlliance spin-off Promina becomes the first company to take a dual primary listing in New Zealand and Australia when it lists this afternoon.

A dual primary listing requires a company to comply with the rules of both exchanges.

Promina will be included in the NZSE-50 index, with its weighting determined by the proportion of revenue it earns in New Zealand.

Rumours continue to circulate about troubled Tranz Rail, with investors looking for more information on asset sales. Nothing specific is expected this week but brokers said any new information would be lapped up.

Good news should be in store for Lion Nathan with its six-month result. Last week competitor DB Breweries said one factor in its 25 per cent improvement in bottom-line profit was beer price increases.

DB raised prices by an average of 3.5 per cent last June, and Lion has said it will raise prices by an average 3.5 per cent on June 1.

Forsyth Barr is picking a six-month bottom line of $110.6 million for the brewer and winemaker - compared with $100 million for the previous corresponding period.

When releasing first-quarter figures in February the company said it was on track for double-digit growth for the full year.

Little reaction is expected to Thursday's Budget given the present requirements for a no-surprise document.

"The Budget is no longer used to spring surprises in order to win political votes," Forsyth Barr research head Rob Mercer said.

But he said the tone of the document and whether it was seen as more or less business friendly was important.

Issues such as labour laws, Kyoto obligations, inefficiencies within the electricity sector and the Resource Management Act are crucial to business.

"We need to encourage them [the Government] to make sure the focus is on setting an attractive environment for business and one which will attract capital to New Zealand."