End to planned merger hurts Sky price

Deal with Vodafone called off as the parties withdraw their appeal of Commerce Commission decision

New Zealand shares rose yesterday, led by Z Energy and Spark New Zealand in relatively light trading, while Sky Network Television fell after the pay-TV operator and Vodafone New Zealand terminated their merger deal, although it did pare some of its losses over the session as more detail came to light.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 41.86 points or 0.6 per cent to 7595.50.

Within the index, 30 stocks rose, 12 fell and eight were unchanged. $110 million.

“It’s firm, but on very light volume. The start of the week looked like it was going to be relatively quiet, but there has been a little bit of interest” with some corporate activity, said David Price, director of institutional equities at Forsyth Barr.

Sky and Vodafone New Zealand withdrew their appeal against the Commerce Commission’s rejection of their $3.44-billion media merger, which Price said sparked some Turnover was activity on the market.

initially fell 5 per cent but after chief executive John Fellet said the decision to drop the appeal was a mutual one with the costs likely to outweigh the benefits, it pared some of its losses and ended down 2.1 per cent at $3.32, the biggest drag on the index.

News that Suncorp Group’s Vero Insurance New Zealand unit had sweetened a takeover offer for Tower also garnered interest, Price said.

Vero is offering $1.40 a share to take over Tower, valuing it

Sky

at $236.1m, up from an earlier price of $1.30 a share, or $219.3m. Tower shares are in a trading halt as the general insurer’s board goes through the detail of the increased bid. last traded at $1.15.

led the market higher, adding 2.4 per cent to $7.65 while Spark — which opposed the Sky/Vodafone tieup — added 2.3 per cent to $3.84.

Price noted volumes remained tepid. While the market was hitting a fresh high on a regular basis, many people

Tower Z Energy

were sticking to the sidelines.

“There hasn’t been the earnings support to drive it forward so people are finding it hard to find value,” he said.

Other gainers included

Metro Performance Glass,

which added 2.2 per cent to $1.38, and which was up 1.7 per cent to $7.64.

Freightways New Zealand Salmon Investments King

added 4.7 per cent to $1.57 after it said it expected annual earnings to beat its offer document forecast and affirmed its projected profit for the following year.

Gene-

In the other direction, slid 2 per cent to

sis Energy Meridian Energy

$2.43 while fell 0.8 per cent to $2.98 and

SkyCity Group

Stride Property Group Entertainment

fell 0.7 per cent to $4.29. shed 0.6 per cent to $1.73. The property investor, which last month beat annual profit forecasts, said it had promoted Philip Littlewood to chief executive after the former GM investment management spent six months in a joint acting role.