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Tower New Zealand next week reports its first full-year result since splitting from its Australian business late last year.
While chief executive Rob Flannagan recently said the numbers would be affected by the Tongan riots, Solomon Islands tsunami and unrest in Fiji, the company's shares received a boost from yesterday's Budget.
Tower closed 9c higher at $2.30 after the Government said KiwiSaver would now feature tax breaks for employee contributions and compulsory employer contributions, which are likely to substantially increase uptake of the scheme.
Tower is one of the default KiwiSaver providers and Flannagan said it was expecting to make a loss on the scheme for a number of years because of low uptake. However yesterday's changes are likely to draw more participation and more funds faster.
NZAX under threat
Sharemarket operator New Zealand Exchange was this week talking up its NZAX alternative market and its best performers including Comvita and Just Water.
It said NZAX was "a strong platform for growth companies to raise capital, trade and grow".
On that basis it is encouraging to see NZAX-listed New Zealand Windfarms raise $75 million lately and signal its intention to move over to the NZX main board.
Should it do so it would be a textbook example of how the NZAX was intended to serve as a nursery for main board companies.
The timing of NZX's trumpeting of NZAX's performance was curious, just a few days after trading figures showed turnover falling on the NZAX while rising on rival market Unlisted. NZAX still outguns Unlisted ... for the time being anyway. In April 421 trades worth $3 million went through while over on Unlisted there were 302 trades worth $2.4 million.
There are 29 companies listed on the NZAX and it has a total cap of $533 million against Unlisted's 23 companies and market cap of just below $1 billion.
The single biggest reason for the decline in turnover on the NZAX and a fall in market cap is of course less activity at lower prices in Plus SMS.
When the company's market value peaked at $262 million in November 2005, the NZAX's entire market cap was $632 million.
However, Plus SMS' value collapsed in September after it admitted making incorrect statements to the market. That prompted a Securities Commission inquiry which has yet to see the light of day.
The commission is also taking an "in depth" look at the NZAX but chairwoman Jane Diplock says that is "not particularly" related to Plus SMS.
But any schadenfreude Unlisted is feeling ought to be tempered by the knowledge that it was only allowed to continue trading as an unregulated market by dint of its relative insignificance.
Should it continue growing it's likely to strike attract attention from the Government and regulators sooner or later.
Green machine
Even less than astute observers have probably noticed a stampede of companies looking to clamber aboard the climate change bandwagon lately - even state-owned coalminer Solid Energy has produced an environmental report lately.
But Lloyd Morrison's Infratil is already reaping the benefits of recognising the money to be made in green businesses such as renewable energy generation and public transport.
This week the company reported a sharp lift in net profit, but of more interest, given it is an investment company, was the upward revaluation of some of its businesses.
The company is continuing to post fresh highs, yesterday closing at $6.60.
ABN Amro broker Matt Willis points out that late last year, just before Infratil said it was to take a controlling stake in Trustpower, its stock was trading just a little over $4.
"What has become quite apparent to local and global markets is renewable energy as a sector is getting more and more attention and it's clear the Government climate change policy looks likely to seriously enhance the prospects of that renewable energy space.
"How Infratil have positioned themselves ahead of these developments is a glowing endorsement of management and how they pick these transitionary type asset classes.
"They've spent the last four or five years getting themselves well set in the renewable energy space, and lo and behold, in the last year all the talk has been around climate change and what particularly Kyoto ratifiers are doing in their economies in order to achieve the targets of Kyoto.
"Obviously the energy sector seems to be the first off the rank with talk of a market based solution for carbon and there's Infratil sitting pretty with about 60 per cent of their $1 billion under investment in that renewable space."
SkyCity about to fly
ABN Amro has raised its 12-month target price on SkyCity from $5.59 to $5.73 and describes the company as an undervalued asset play on which it has a "buy" recommendation. That's despite taking a dim view of management's investment in underperforming assets.
Even on what analyst Carolyn Holmes describes as a "disappointing earnings-growth picture", ABN believes the company is currently undervalued by about 14 per cent based on present estimates, or by 27 per cent if the company chooses to sell its underperforming assets.
Those assets include SkyCity Adelaide, SkyCity Leisure cinemas and SkyCity Grand Hotel and convention centre.
Holmes notes the company had fallen short of its targeted return on assets for the Grand Hotel and convention centre and unfavourable regulations including the smoking ban and $20 note acceptor limit were not entirely to blame.
By getting rid of its lacklustre investments, Holmes believes, SkyCity could be worth as much as $6.13 or even $6.23 if it gets good prices for them. Shares closed at $4.93.
Other developments that might push the company's shares higher include greater market appreciation of SkyCity's monopoly casino licences, corporate activity and "board and/or management changes that potentially result in improved operational performance ".