Quiet start to New Zealand reporting season

SkyCity Entertainment's Auckland operations will assist a return to profit growth. Photo by NZ...
SkyCity Entertainment's Auckland operations will assist a return to profit growth. Photo by NZ Herald.
The New Zealand economic calendar is quiet this week although the February reporting seasons starts tomorrow and the corporate news flow will soon take centre stage in the business headlines.

SkyCity Entertainment tomorrow and listed jeweller Michael Hill International on Friday are the only major companies scheduled to report this week but the following two weeks are much busier.

In Australia, there would be more activity. Ansell, AGL, Commonwealth Bank, Computershare, CSL, Stockland, Rio Tinto, Telstra and Transurban are all set to report, Craigs Investment Partners broker Chris Timms said yesterday. The United States reporting season was approaching its end.

So far, 317 Standard and Poor's 500 companies had reported during the quarter and 72% had beaten market expectations.

''While this is solid, it is slightly behind the 75% beat rate of the previous quarter.''

Aggregate S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings growth had been steadily increasing through the reporting season, he said.

Before the reporting season began, just two sectors - energy and materials - were expected to have negative earnings. Healthcare, technology, industrials and consumer discretionary had been the outperformers to offset the negative sectors.

Another 68 S&P 500 companies reported this week, including Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Mr Timms said.

Forsyth Barr broker Andrew Rooney expects SkyCity to return to earnings growth tomorrow with a 4.4% increase in normalised profit to $69.3 million.

Auckland and the international business would be the drivers for the return to growth, offset by still-sluggish Australian properties.

Both gaming and non-gaming operations at SkyCity Auckland performed well in the second half of the 2014 financial year, he said.

''We expect these trends to again be evident in the first half of 2015, given the robust local economy, strong house prices, an expanded and improved offer and a high level of visitor and event-related activity in Auckland generally.''

The Australian operations were expected to remain subdued, given the economic backdrop and also disruption at the Adelaide property from the initial stages of the redevelopment.

An improvement from Adelaide in the second half was expected. The first half was a seasonally stronger period for the Darwin casino, Mr Rooney said.

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