Tough start for most NZX debutants
AUCKLAND: It is early days yet, but most of the sharemarket’s latest debutants have not fared well since listing.
In recent months eight new names have joined the NZX: Radius Healthcare, Auckland Real Estate, Harmoney, Rua Bioscience, NZ Rural Land, Third Age Health, NZ Automotive Investments and My Food Bag.
My Food Bag — the biggest of those new issues — has failed to fire since listing on March 5.
The stock closed at $1.57, down from its issue price of $1.85, despite some upbeat broker reports on the company.
Craigs Investment Partners, which this week initiated coverage of the company, rated My Food Bag as ‘‘overweight’’, with a 12month target price of $1.93.
Forsyth Barr has given the stock an ‘‘outperform’’ rating of $1.85 — in line with its IPO price.
Jarden, which acted as joint lead manager for the issue alongside Forsyth Barr and Craigs, rated the company as a ‘‘buy’’ with a $1.90 target price.
Craigs said it saw a ‘‘good runway for earnings growth’’ in 2021 and 2022, supported by procurement savings.
Investors will be the judge of that when My Food Bag releases its annual results for the March 31 year on May 21.
Online direct personal lender Harmoney debuted last November at a discount to its $A3.50 ($NZ3.79) issue price and has since slumped even further.
The stock last traded on the ASX at $A2.03 — a 42% discount to its issue price — and at $2.22 on the NZX.
Harmoney opted for a primary listing on the ASX, with a ‘‘foreign exempt’’ listing on the NZX.
In an earnings update this week, Harmoney said that across the group, loans to new customers increased 60% to $44.1 million in the third quarter, up from $27.5m in the second quarter.
NZ Rural Land’s share price has also been slow out of the traps since listing late in December.
The stock closed at $1.14, against its issue price of $1.25.
The company raised $75m in the public share float, which along with debt will give it about $100m to buy rural land.
NZ Rural aims to acquire properties and lease them to farmers or other producers.
Shares in NZ Automotive Investments, the company behind one of the country’s largest used car dealerships, 2 Cheap Cars, last traded at $1.05 from its $1.30 February listing price.
NZ Automotive was a ‘‘direct’’ listing, which did not involve a capital raising.
Auckland Real Estate Trust, which specialists in investing in Auckland’s CBD, has not deviated from 79c since its December listing.
The trust was already listed on the ASX before it joined the NZX.
Medicinal cannabis company Rua Bioscience has slipped after starting strongly in October.
Rua closed at 38.5c, down from its 50c issue price and a far cry from last year’s 70c peak.
Out of the new issues to come to the market in recent months, the retirement sector has found favour.
Shares in Third Age Health, a medical services provider for the sector, closed at $2.40, up from its initial reference price of $2.15 but down from its early peak of $2.70.
In the same camp, Radius, a specialist health and aged care provider for the elderly and disabled, closed at 99c, up from its 80c issue price.
Neither Third Age nor Radius raised new capital.
NZX chairman James Miller said at last week’s annual meeting that the NZX’s ‘‘pipeline’’ of new issues had never been stronger.
‘‘This includes the possibility of some equity listings of very significant scale – prospects that could have a positive impact on the NZX,’’ he said.
Jarden has given the thumbsup to Comvita’s moves to reorganise itself.
The manuka honey exporter, which has had a chequered earnings history, has been changing to take the volatility out of its earnings.
The company this week said it now expects its operating Ebitda for the June year to be in a range of $22.5m to $25.5m, up from a previously announced range of $20m to $23m, thanks to good cost control and a favourable sales channel mix. — The New Zealand Herald