KEY POINTS:
Restaurant Brands New Zealand Ltd is down to talking to one interested buyer and if they don't front with a firm offer by the end of the month it will be business as usual.
The fast-food franchise operator said today its unaudited net profit after tax, excluding non-trading items, for the year ended February 28 was down 47 per cent to $6.5 million.
This was in line with the previously signalled range. The unaudited number was supplied to the market because it had been promised and the audited full-year accounts will be released at the end of the month.
They have been delayed because of more extensive disclosure requirements following the adoption of the new International Financial Reporting Standards.
The bigger picture for the company is that it has been talking to potential buyers after being eyed by private equity players last year and it needs a new chief executive.
It appointed Macquarie as an adviser on the issue of potential buyers.
Chairman Ted van Arkel said today that talks continued with a number of interested buyers but none of them had come forward with a firm offer.
"So we are at the stage where there is one remaining party on the table and we are close to saying if this is not getting anywhere then we want to come out with a definite statement," he said.
The company had never been for sale as such, it had just responded to market inquiries.
Mr van Arkel declined to say whether the remaining party was one of the private equity firms that had previously been seen as interested -- Pacific Equity Partners and CVC Asia Pacific.
He hoped to know by the end of April whether the remaining party was serious or not.
The company had not opened a dataroom for prospective buyers but it had provided quite a lot of financial information.
Meantime the company was in the process of appointing a recruitment firm to search for a new chief executive.
Last month it announced Vicki Salmon had resigned as chief executive and director.
The search would likely be in both Australia and New Zealand and there would also be some internal candidates.
Directors said today that the lower result reflected reduced profitability in its Pizza Hut operations.
Restaurant Brands' shares were down 1c at on 93 cents in morning trading. They are down from $1.30 a year ago. The company is no longer in the NZSX-50 benchmark index.
Restaurant Brands operate the Pizza Hut, Starbucks and KFC franchises in New Zealand.
It previously made a costly foray into the Australian pizza market, which it quit at a substantial loss last year.
Tower Asset Management owns 5.04 per cent of the company.
- NZPA
