Vulcan Steel's share price has been strong since listing. Photo / Supplied
A handful of new equity listings were added to the NZX in 2021.
NZ Automotive Investments listed in February, along with Third Age Health.
My Food Bag appeared in March, DGL Group in May and Greenfern in October.
TradeWindow, Ventia and Vulcan Steel all listed in November while Winton Land debuted in December.
So, how is the class of '21 faring so far?
Dual-listed Australasian steel distributor Vulcan traded $7.50 on day one at the NZX.
It went on to peak at $10.33 in April this year before dropping back to its latest price of $8.70.
Vulcan's earnings performance has been explosive in its short tenure as a listed stock.
Despite the disruptions caused by Covid-19 and major floods across parts of Queensland and New South Wales, the company's net profit of $142m exceeded its prospectus forecast by 89 per cent.
Vulcan expects a largely flat 2023, reflecting softer New Zealand activity and the impact of lower steel prices on margins, offset by its recent Ullrich Aluminum purchase.
Salt Funds managing director Matt Goodson said that while Vulcan was clearly the pick of the bunch of the 2021 listings, the market is now grappling with how long the building cycle in New Zealand and Australia will last.
"In particular, in their line of business when you have steel prices rising rapidly you tend to be able to buy inventory cheap and sell it dear.
"But as the cycle turns, suddenly the inventory that you have bought dear is having to be sold cheaper, and that tends to coincide with the cycle where volumes start to fall away somewhat," Goodson said.
"That's what the market is grappling with and that's the reason why Vulcan is well off its recent highs," he said.
"It's great to see it listed but it will perform in quite a volatile manner, with the market's changing expectations about the building cycle in New Zealand and Australia."
Meal kit company My Food Bag has continued to disappoint, the stock last trading at 61c - well down on its $1.85 IPO issue price.
The company has been caught by a sharp lift in distribution costs and by labour shortages.
"The balance sheet is strong," Salt Funds' Goodson said. "They are generating free cash flow, so it's not an issue of company solvency or anything like that.
"It's a question of what are the sustainable earnings numbers for this company and what is a fair share price?
"That's where the market has taken a much harsher view since it listed."
Used car importer and dealer NZ Automotive Investments has struck difficult trading conditions in its first year as a listed entity.
The disruption of Covid-19 lockdowns helped drive the company's underlying net profit after tax of $1.7m in the year to March, down from $3.8m in the previous year.
NZ Automotive, the company behind 2Cheap Cars, has been rocked by boardroom resignations.
One of the new board appointments is insolvency expert Michael Stiassny.
The stock last traded at 49c - down from its $1.30 listing price.
Shares in residential property development company Winton Land last traded at $2.69 - down more than a dollar from its IPO issue price of $3.88.
Last month, Winton said its net profit was $31.7m in the year to June, down from $46.1m a year earlier, but ahead of its offer document forecast of $29.7m.
Elsewhere in the class of '21, Third Age Health - a medical service provider for retirement villages - traded at $2.04, down from its listing reference price of $2.15.
Medicinal cannabis company Greenfern traded at 15c from its reference price of 25c and software specialist TradeWindow was at 68c from its 92c listing price.
Chemicals handler and manufacturer DGL has made the ASX home.
In New Zealand, the shares were issued at $1.00 and quickly rallied to over $4.00 before delisting in June. In Australia, the stock now trades at A$1.78 - down from its high in April of A$4.15.
Sydney-based, dual-listed infrastructure service company Ventia's shares were issued at A$1.70, compared with A$2.95 today.
The New Zealand S&P/NZX50 index returned 0.9 per cent in August, similar to the Australian S&P/ASX200, which was up 0.6 per cent.
The US S&P500 was down 4.5 per cent for the month.
Market volatility remained high and many companies in New Zealand and Australia announced their annual financial results.
This earnings season has produced solid results in general, Castle Point Funds said.
"Perhaps more importantly, outlook statements have also been optimistic," Castle Point said in a commentary.
"There appears to be a growing disconnect between what markets are fearing and what companies are seeing.
"While there is evidence of some consumer spending slowdown, it is off Covid and it is not cliffing.
"Industrial activity is high with high levels of long-term pipeline and committed orders.
"Many of our companies issued statements of 'cautious optimism' about the future, but when quizzed at our meetings with them the comments were closer to 'haven't ever been more optimistic', the disconnect appears to be the stories of impending recession in the media that they are reading about, but not seeing themselves."
Forsyth Barr's analysis of the reporting season showed beats outnumbered misses by 3 to 2 during the August 2022 reporting season, a deceleration from the 7 to 2 recorded last reporting season in February.
The market's reception of the results was positive, with a 3:1 skew in favour of out-performance, after results.
"Our analysts, on average, were less excited, with a meaningful tilt in favour of earnings per share downgrades for both 2023 and 2024, and six rating downgrades against four rating upgrades.
"After some very weak business confidence survey data, we expected what increasingly feels like an unavoidable and meaningful economic slowdown to dominate proceedings, but not so."
Instead, the broker walked away with three main takeaways from company reports: near-term cost pressures, interest expense, and mostly positive outlook statements.
"This is a meaningful deviation from our expectations," Forsyth Barr said.
"Are we seeing some light in the tunnel? Or is that just a freight train of stagflation heading our way?"
Share market watchers were surprised by the resignations of Restaurant Brands' (RBD) chief executive Russel Creedy and chief financial officer Grant Ellis after 20 years.
The company operates 359 KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Carl's Jr stores in New Zealand, Australia, California and Hawaii, and is the master franchisor of 101 Pizza Hut stores in New Zealand.
The stock is far less liquid these days after Mexican investor Finaccess Capital's successful partial takeover of 75 per cent of the stock in 2019 at $9.45 a share.
The resignations, combined with recent earnings pressures, have raised questions about just what is going on with RBD.
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