Napier Port to go public in New Zealand's biggest listing in 2 years

Cannasouth

15/08/2019 03:35

By Aditya Soni
    Aug 15 (Reuters) - Napier Port Holdings  NPH.NZ , the
operator of New Zealand's fourth largest port by container
volume, filed for an initial public offering (IPO) that would be
the country's first major float in two years.
    The offer, which looks to raise as much as NZ$234 million 
($150.65 million) upon listing on Aug. 20, according to the
prospectus, comes as New Zealand's exchange operator NZX Ltd
 NZX.NZ  struggles to attract new listings.
    The company expects a NZ$520 million market valuation
through the NZ$2.60 a share offer, which is at the top of the
indicative price range, making it the country's biggest public
offering since Oceania Healthcare  OCA.NZ  rang the bell in
2017.
    A two-year listing drought on NZX ended in June when
cannabis firm Cannasouth Ltd  CBD.NZ  listed publicly.
    The dearth of new floats has attracted shareholder criticism
lately, forcing the bourse to take remedial actions.
    NZX partnered with Nasdaq Inc  NDAQ.O  in 2018 to attract
overseas investors. This year, it started a review of capital
markets alongside the country's financial regulator and launched
geographic revenue exposure indices with S&P Dow Jones Indices.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1VX5AP  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N23B4L7  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1ZN53W
    The bourse's Chief Executive Officer Mark Peterson said the
initiatives are paying off.
    "We have done a lot of work to reset the platform. We have
looked at the listing rules, looked at the liquidity, the
trading rules and more importantly talking to our issuers, so I
think all of that have played a part," Peterson told Reuters. 
    "We are aware of more listings, it is still early days on
those but we are hopeful," he added.    
    Jason Kururangi, an investment adviser at Aberdeen Standard
Investments in Sydney said the "retail investor in New Zealand
has not had a lot new stuff to look at...so this (Napier's IPO)
should generate quite a bit of interest in the local market."
    The industrials firm posted a net profit of NZ$17.6 million
in fiscal 2018, a 5% growth over the previous year.
    For fiscal 2019, it expects an adjusted net profit of
NZ$19.2 million, with its maiden dividend following the offer in
December.
    The Hawke's Bay-based company plans to use the proceeds from
the listing to reduce debt and fund the construction of a new
wharf to increase the port's capacity.
    NZX already plays host to Port of Tauranga  POT.NZ , the
country's biggest port by container volume, which has
outperformed the local benchmark  .NZ50  for nearly two decades,
according to Refinitiv data. 
    The IPO of the port operator, which handles over 5 million
tonnes of cargo per year, is being managed by Deutsche Craigs,
Goldman Sachs and Forsyth Barr.

($1 = 1.5533 New Zealand dollars)

 (Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
 ((Aditya.Soni@thomsonreuters.com; +91 80 6749 1130;))