In case you missed it: News bites for the week.
Retirement village provider Summerset is launching a $100 million bond offer for retail and institutional investors to roll over existing debt.
The bonds will mature in May 2031 and the interest rate will be the sum of the issue margin plus the base rate but, in any case, would be no less than 5.35%.
Both the issue margin and the interest rate would be completed via bookbuild process and the bonds would be quoted on the debt market on May 26.
Summerset has the ability to accept a further $50m in over-subscriptions.
Today’s announcement comes after Summerset said last week it was considering a six-year, fixed-rate bond offer to repay a portion of existing drawn bank debt. The company would then use bank debt to fund the repayment of Summerset’s $125m bonds that mature in September.
Summerset has four retail bonds totalling $575m on issue.
The joint leader managers for the offer are ANZ Bank, CBA Bank, Craigs Investment Partners, and Forsyth Barr.
Te Matatini, New Zealand's premier kapa haka festival, will no longer be hosted by Te Tauihu (Nelson-Marlborough) in 2027, as organisers say the event has become too large for smaller regions. Despite significant preparation, the festival’s rapid growth in scale and attendance raised serious concerns about Te Tauihu's capacity in terms of accommodation, transport, and logistics.
Te Matatini will now seek expressions of interest from larger regions better equipped to handle its expanding audience and infrastructure needs. Te Tauihu leaders expressed disappointment but acknowledged the logistical realities.
It’s estimated the cultural festival injected $22m into the Auckland economy in 2023, and more than $25m into New Plymouth for this year’s event.
Millennium Copthorne Queenstown.
Graham McKenzie – a long-serving director of NZX-listed Millennium & Copthorne – will stand for re-election to its board. McKenzie, a former partner to law firm Bell Gully, was part of the independent directors' committee leading the response to the hotel group's recent takeover offer by major shareholder CDL Hotels Holdings.
He'd indicated he wouldn't be standing for re-election but, on the strength of a request by a minority shareholder, McKenzie's re-election has been included in the notice of meeting.
A former director of CDL, he has been a fixture of the MCK board since 2006. The company's annual meeting is scheduled to take place in Auckland on May 30.
Electricity distributor Vector has signalled the possible sale of its fibre network business, with Australian investment bank Barrenjoey hired to help with a strategic review. In a brief statement to the NZX, Vector said the fibre business “builds and manages data network solutions for businesses predominantly in Auckland, including major businesses, government entities and some leading channel partners”. There was no certainty a transaction would eventuate, it said. Vector has had a telecommunications operation since acquiring UnitedNetworks in 2002 and was a bidder for the Government’s ultrafast broadband rollout in 2011 but lost out to the deal creating Telecom spin-off Chorus. The financial performance of Vector’s fibre business is included in its accounts as part of “other” revenue, which was $66.2m in the year to June 2024, out of total revenue of $1.14 billion.
David Smol.
Three new Public Research Organisations (PROs) being created under a major reform of the science sector will become operational on July 1. Barry Harris will chair the Bioeconomy Science Institute, while David Smol will chair the New Zealand Institute for Earth Science. The Institute of Environmental Science and Research will retain its existing governance as it transitions to the New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science. Former Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has been appointed CEO of ESR until the end of 2026. All three organisations will remain Crown Research Institutes until legislation enables their transition to PROs in mid-2026. No date has yet been set for starting the new Advanced Technology PRO, although last week's $71m allocation from existing funding for a new science platform hosted by the Robinson Research Institute was hailed as the first step towards it.
NZX-listed Wine and liquor business, Foley Wine, has reported a 35% lift in its grape harvest. The company behind brands such as Mt Difficulty, Roaring Meg, Clifford Bay reported more than 8600 tonnes of grapes were harvested across vineyards in Marlborough, Martinborough, and Central Otago. That was up from 6,404 tonnes of grapes picked in 2024. In Marlborough, Foley Wines reported its largest harvest on record, totalling more than 6800 tonnes. However, disruptive weather and frost negatively impacted yields in Otago. Foley Wines chief executive Mark Turnbull stepped down at the end of April after 13 years in the role. He was replaced by Mike Higgins on an interim basis.
Consumer spending using electronic cards was flat in April, according to data from Statistics NZ today. Retail spending using credit, debit, and charge cards was unchanged last month, compared with March. Spending in ‘core’ retail industries increased just 0.2%. Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said some of the softness in spending was because of falls in petrol prices. Spending on groceries continued to rise, while spending on durables, such as household furnishings, along with the hospitality sector, had been flat in recent months. “Today’s soft result reinforces the picture of subdued domestic demand in the early part of the year,” Ranchhod said. “We expect this picture will start to turn around over the coming months.” He said further interest rate cuts would help, but there were “powerful headwinds”, such as the cost of living and a soft labour market. “Putting that all together, retail spending is likely to remain slow in the near term."
Auckland Airport immigration area.
New Zealand’s annual net migration continues to dwarf previous years, according to Statistics NZ data released today. Overall, there was an annual net migration gain of 26,400 in the year ended March, well down from a gain of 100,400 the previous year. International migration statistics spokesperson Sarah Drake said the fall was mainly driven by fewer migrant arrivals, although departures rose to a provisional annual record. On a monthly basis, there was a net gain of 2300 in March, compared with a net gain of 3500 in March last year. From a travel perspective, Stats NZ said New Zealand residents arrived back from more than three million short-term overseas trips of less than 12 months. Drake said the increase was mainly driven by more trips to Australia, as well as Indonesia, China, and Japan. Meanwhile, overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand were 3.32 million over the year, up 137,000 from the previous year.
Michael Fielding.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched a national campaign targeting foreign bribery, to raise awareness and to encourage reporting. It includes a new online platform to support safe, anonymous reporting of suspected foreign bribery. The practice benefited corrupt people over honest businesses, the SFO said, noting it could take many forms, including a New Zealand company paying a foreign official for market access, a bribe from an overseas company to a public official here, or kickbacks to a private sector employee by a foreign company. The new platform will provide an encrypted channel for whistleblowers to report foreign bribery to SFO investigators. It uses the WhistleB platform provided by Navex, and was configured to "meet the highest possible settings for privacy and data security", the SFO said. All reports would be received by trained staff, and all interactions with case handlers remained encrypted, with data being stored in EU-based data centres.
Xero has reported a 30% increase in annual profit, reaching $227.8m in the year to the end of March 2025.
The ASX-listed accounting software business's annual operating revenue of $2.1b was up 23% on the prior year, and it saw a 22% increase in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (ebitda) to $640.6m.
The company also generated "strong" free cashflow of $506.7m at a margin of 24.1%, improving from 20% in the prior period. As a result, the company again delivered a greater than Rule of 40 outcome, at 44.3% in FY25.
Net subscriber additions was down 39% but the figure included the removal of "long idle subscriptions". Including those removals, Xero's average revenue per user went up 15% and the total lifetime value of its subscribers increased 16%.
Looking ahead, the company said total operating expenses as a percentage of revenue was expected to be around 71.5% in FY26. The ratio is expected to be higher in H1 FY26 versus H2 FY26.
Fletcher Building has abolished the role of Australian divisional CEO Gareth O’Reilly and restructured the Australian operations into two new trans-Tasman divisions, Light Building Products and Heavy Building Products.
Light Building, including Winstone Wallboards, Iplex and Laminex, will be led by former Building Products chief Hamish McBeath.
Heavy Building, including Golden Bay Cement and Firth Concrete, will be led by former Concrete CEO Thornton Williams.
Fletcher group CEO Andrew Reding said O’Reilly would leave the company and wished him well.
In its statement to the NZX, Fletcher said it had also saved a further $15m a year in corporate costs and it expected more cost reductions could be identified.
New Zealand’s manufacturing sector improved further in April, with production and new orders in positive territory.
The latest BNZ-BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index, released today, increased to 53.9 last month, compared with 53.2 in March. A reading over 50 indicated expansion.
All sub-indicators were in expansion during the month, with production and new orders making gains, while employment had the highest level of expansion since mid-2021.
However, the proportion of negative comments from manufacturers increased slightly to 58% last month, noting higher costs as well as global and local economic uncertainty.
Some manufacturers reported modest growth, driven by rising demand, infrastructure projects, and strong ‘niche’ markets, despite ongoing caution about inflation and supply chain challenges.
Simon Bridges.
The confidence of Auckland businesses has continued to decline.
The latest Auckland Business Chamber confidence survey reported negative sentiment up 6.8% to 47% from 44% in the previous quarter.
Only 38% of those surveyed expected New Zealand’s economic performance to improve over the next 12 months, down from 44%.
The amount of businesses expecting revenue to flatline or decline over the next 12 months also totaled 54%, up from 46% during the previous quarter.
Key business concerns outlined in the survey included: consumer confidence and demand, international trade and geopolitical risks, and productivity and growth.
Auckland Business Chamber chief executive Simon Bridges said businesspeople were hoping for better days by now and green shoots, "but the reality is they don’t see that yet”.
Bridges acknowledged the impact of geopolitics but, with less than a week until the Government reports the annual budget, "domestic settings also assume huge significance".
Investore chair Mike Allen says it is a good time to secure assets with strong rental and capital growth characteristics. That's on the back of a $12.1 million valuation increase which helped push after-tax profit to $38.4m for the 12 months to March, up from a comparable loss of $67.1m loss.
The NZX-listed large format retail property company, managed by Stride Investment Management, now has 43 properties valued at $1 billion, at an average portfolio capitalisation rate of 6.3% for the year. The firm sold its Pak 'n Save New Plymouth and Woolworths Invercargill properties for a combined $54.3m during the year, recycling that capital into the cash purchase of the country's largest Bunnings at Westgate, for $51m.
It also divested its Woolworths in Mt Roskill, for $25m. Of the group's 142 tenants, Bunnings now represents 17% of the group's contract rental stream, with Woolworths at 62% and Mitre 10 and Briscoes Group at 3% each. Net rental income was up by $1.1m at $62.3m for the year.
Zespri has appointed Vicki McColl as its chief financial officer. The kiwifruit marketer has poached McColl from Silver Fern Farms, where she has been CFO since December 2016. Prior to Silver Fern Farms, McColl held senior finance roles at Dyno Nobel Asia Pacific Pty Ltd and Rio Tinto.The appointment follows the departure of Zespri's former CFO Richard Hopkins, who held the position for six years before leaving in April to become CFO at Mercury. McColl will join Zespri and take up her new role in August.
