Nuplex forges ahead with ASX listing

Resin company Nuplex Holdings yesterday forecast a minimum 20 per cent increase in its net profit this year, saying turnover for the first quarter was 16 per cent ahead of the same period a year ago.

The company also said its plans for a secondary listing on the Australian Stock Exchange had been approved and it expected this to be finalised in the next week or two.

Nuplex made a profit of $11.65 million in the year to June 30.

Chairman Fred Holland said that its Australian secondary listing should in no way be seen as a flight from New Zealand.

"The businesses we have established in New Zealand are efficient and sufficiently competitive globally to support the New Zealand market and to be fit to export significant volumes of specialised products to the Asia Pacific region," he said.

Mr Holland described business conditions as buoyant in Australia and New Zealand and steady in Asia. The only cloud on the horizon was the cost of its petrochemical raw materials with the rising price of crude oil. Nuplex did not expect to recover the extra costs from its products.

Resin had regrown to 70 per cent of Nuplex's turnover but Mr Holland said that was a timing matter. It aimed to have 40 per cent of turnover from the construction material and waste distribution businesses.

NZPA