Stocks to Watch: FPA debt due, Sky City placement

Stocks to Watch: F&P Appliances, Sky City placement

The following stocks may be active on the New Zealand exchange after developments since the close of trading yesterday.

Themes of the day: U.S. stocks rose, led by lenders, after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said most U.S. lenders have sufficient capital though bad debts will likely slow their recovery. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.6%. The New Zealand dollar gained to 56.40 U.S. cents as investors’ appetite for risk returned.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances (FPA): The shares fell 2.2% to 44 cents yesterday, bringing its decline this year to 67%. The company’s temporary NZ$80 million loan-facility ends on April 30, increasing the prospects for the company to announce new capital-raising initiatives. It gained a waiver to its debt cover ratio and interest cover ratio covenants for the term of the interim facility, buying more time to negotiate with its banking syndicate to refinance bank debt.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (FPH): The healthcare products company climbed above NZ$3 for the first time in three weeks yesterday, helped by a weakening kiwi dollar and news of a venture between General Electric and Intel to set up a US$$250 million health research partnership including the condition sleep apnea. The move puts F&P Healthcare “on the radar as a possible target,” Tyndall Investment Management’s Rickey Ward said.

Fletcher Building (FBU): The nation’s biggest construction firm yesterday won an NZ$1.7 million Auckland District Court judgment against Nigel McKenna's Melview Featherston Street for not paying the final amount for building the 280-room 17-level Wellington Holiday Inn, an NZ$100 million project, the NZ Herald reported. The shares tumbled 27 cents to NZ$6.28.

ING Medical Properties Trust (IMP): The trust’s manager today announced its third-quartern cash distribution to unitholders of 2.125 cents per unit. The units rose 2 cents to NZ$1.14 yesterday.

Pike River Coal Ltd. (PRC): The mining company yesterday said its NZ$41 million rights issue, which closed on April 17, was fully subscribed and applications had been scaled back under the excess subscription facility. Nearly 3,000 shareholders applied for a further 12.38 million shares in excess of their entitlements, the company said. The shares fell 2.5% to 78 cents yesterday.

Sky City Entertainment (SKC): the nation’s biggest casino company today announced the completion of an NZ$185.3 million underwritten institutional placement, of 71 million ordinary shares at $2.61 apiece, an 8.4% discount on their last trading price. The institutional placement will be complemented by a Share Purchase Plan and a Top-Up Offer. The shares will resume trading today.
The shares dropped 2.7% to NZ$2.85 yesterday. The company forecast profit for the 12 months through March will be between NZ$99 million and NZ$106 million. Profit last year of NZ$49.9 million included a NZ$60 million writedown of its cinema unit.

SmartPay Ltd. (SPY): The electronic transaction systems company yesterday said it raised NZ$490,000 in a placement of 37,496,172 shares at $0.013068 cents apiece to private investors. The funds will strengthen SmartPay’s balance sheet, provide cash for acquisitions and help the company weather the downturn, managing director Ian Bailey said. The stock fell 6.7% to 1.4 cents yesterday and is up 35% this year.

(Businesswire)

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