Stock of the Week: The Warehouse Group

In this Stock of the Week we are going to be looking at New Zealand's dominant general retailer The Warehouse Group [WHS.NZ].

Its a stock that hasn't been in the news recently although it probably should be, for a number of reasons, the least not being a sale process that appears to be in some sort of credit crises limbo.

It has been trading at a pretty steady share price for the last 6 months (marking time until news about its sale is forthcoming) at a range between NZ$3.00 - $3.75 and represents value whether you want it for a quick buck for its probable sale or if a sale falls through and you want a good solid company for the long term portfolio.

On its long-term merits the company has a dominant position in its sector of the retail market and a great cash flow that helps contribute to a gross dividend north of 8%. Spectacular in these days of 3-4% returns for term deposits or 5-6% for rental property.

Retail is struggling these days but that isn't going to last forever and The Warehouse is coping well with the current recession. It historically does well in recessions because of its low price perception.

The company has recently met its own forecast for profit in its March release of its 2009 interim profit and its forecast for FY 2009 is on track to meet last years profit of $90.76 million.

Good luck!



Disclosure - I own WHS shares


Stock of the Week series

Fisher & Paykel Appliances

The Warehouse Group @ Share Investor

Warehouse 2009 interim profit a key economic indicator
When will The Warehouse bidders make their move?
Long vs Short: The Warehouse Group
Warehouse bidders ready to lay money down
The Warehouse set to cut lose "extra" impediment The Warehouse sale could hinge on "Extra" decision
The case for The Warehouse without a buyer
Foodstuffs take their foot off the gas Woolworths seek leave to appeal to Supreme Court
Warehouse appeal decision imminent
Warehouse decision a loser for all
Warehouse Court of appeal decision in Commerce Commission's favour
MARKETWATCH: The Warehouse
The Warehouse takeover saga continues
Why did you buy that stock? [The Warehouse]
History of Warehouse takeover players suggest a long winding road
Court of Appeal delays Warehouse bid
The Warehouse set for turbulent 2008
The Warehouse Court of Appeal case lay in "Extras" hands
WHS Court of Appeal case could be dismissed next week
Commerce Commission impacts on the Warehouse bottom line
The Warehouse in play
Outcomes of Commerce Commission decision
The fight for control begins soon

Share Investor Forum-Discuss this topic


Related Links

2009 Interim Profit Webcast
Go shopping at The Warehouse


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The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) by Benjamin Graham
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c Share Investor 2009

National's Budget like watching paint dry, Labour's would have led to economic disaster

Just looking back on Thursday's budget.

It wasn't really my cup of tea because it didn't cut back on spending enough. 

Lets face it it was politically safe and boring to the max -just what Key and Co need to be elected for a further term.

What was needed though was a massive cut back in the 10s of billions of wasteful social spending over the last ten years that got us in the current mess. Working for families, free money for students and that ridiculous "Gold Card" for seniors that will cost us dearly in the future amoungst other brain dead spending. We simply cannot afford these things.

Nobody got anything in the budget except another unaffordable socialist bribe, the home insulation scheme - stop insulating yourself with my money, keep yourself bloody warm!

We didn't get back the high taxes we paid over the last ten years either. Tax cuts were cut.

A really dumb move practically because we all know tax cuts stimulate economies more than any other tool but a good move politically because it looks like Bill English "cares" about the public purse.

As bitter as a  National Party 2009 budget is to swallow, one doesn't have to broaden ones imagination too far to surmise how much worse the budget would be under a Helen Clark Labour Government.

We would have had more of the same that we had under the last 10 years - Phil Goff has confirmed that many times over the last 8 months by reiterating we should be spending money we don't have. Taxes would have gone up instead of being just cut, we would have borrowed and spent our Children and Grandchildren's economic livelihood like Kevin Rudd, Barrack Obama, Gordon Brown and a number of other brain dead socialist morons around the world have over the last 8 months and interference from our Government would be more akin to a Stalinist regime only seen in North Korea.

We must remember the gleeful way Micheal Cullen gloated to National before the 2008 election that he had spent all our money, there was nothing left in the cupboard -"eat that!" to get a grip on where we would have gone from 2008 to 2011.

The man should be shot as treasonous for doing that but imagine his tax and spend regime under an economy in recession rather than the booming one that he inherited.

Yep, the 2009 Budget was boring but it is just what we need at a time like this, the alternative Labour Budget would have given us the Icelandic economic chills and brought us to our knees in short time.

At least with National we have a chance.

c Political Animal 2009

Freightway's Capital Raising more of the same crap for small shareholders

I have been moaning, bitching and hitting my head against a brick wall recently because of how totally unconscionable a number of NZX listed companies have been towards their shareholders when it comes to the flurry of capital raisings that have happened over the last few months.

Scant little care and only lip service has been given to small shareholders like you and me.

The three capital raisings that I have participated in so far : Sky City Entertainment [SKC.NZX] , Fletcher Building Ltd [FBU.NZX] and Freightways Ltd [FRE.NZX] have all favoured the larger shareholders or in fact recent interlopers who haven't been shareholders at all. They received concrete shareholdings at a definite price, without having to stump up "lost cash" that stays in someone else's bank account until credited back to the recipient with their meagre allotment of shares.

Small shareholders have had to stump up the maximum amount of cash to get a scaled down number of shares at a price they are unsure of until after the offer is closed.

The latest stinker has been the Freightway's share offer that wanted NZ$5,000,000.00 from small shareholders but was over subscribed by 1040%!

As Kelvin Hartnall points out institutions got a great deal:

The total amount provided by small investors was $57 million, which is more than the total capital raising combined. This shows that it was completely unnecessary to dilute the share-holdings by giving institutions such a great deal. Essentially the institutional investors have received a great bargain at the expense of small investors.

I sent in the maximum $12500 and will get less than 500 shares. I needed around 1200 to avoid dilution. Here, from Kelvin Hartnall again is an approximate breakdown of what Freightway's shareholders can expect to get some time next week:

Aggregate pool	$5,000,000
Number of share-holders	6,423
Pool available per share-holder	$778.45
Issue price	$2.44
Shares available per share-holder	319

This favouritism to the big boys is more of the same we small guys have expected and we have little protection from securities law, the NZX or any independent body. Bruce Sheppard from the Share Holders Association has been vocal as usual but has been met with the typical stoney silence or bullshit from company management along the lines of "well that is the best we can do in this economic environment".

Clearly that is wrong. Share offers for every good company that has made one so far have been wildly over-subscribed, so the moola is out there.

Other companies have at least made an attempt to even the financial playing field in their capital raisings by using rights issues to raise money. As rights issues are structured, a non -renouncable rights issue is one where shareholders are given the right to purchase new shares according to the number of shares they hold or they can forgo those rights if they wish. On the other hand a renouncable rights issue would allow shareholders to trade those rights to others should they not want to take up the rights offer.

In my opinion a renouncable share offer is the fairest way of raising capital because you get to buy in proportion to the shareholding you have and if new shareholders wish to participate in the capital raising they can buy the rights off you.

After that if there is a capital shortfall then and only then should institutions get a crack at stumping up some cash and the incentive to offer them a better deal, at the back end, would not only be appropriate but more than warranted.

Related Share Investor Reading

• Sweetheart deal for Fletcher Building's friends makes small investors sick
  
• What 11 years of Stockmarket investing has taught me
• The NZX continues to lose ground with retail investors
• Sky City CEO doubles down
• More Moola Please!
• Are you experienced?
• Sky City share offer confusing and unfair for small shareholders

Discuss this topic @ Shareinvestor.net.nz

Relevant Links

Kelvin Hartnall's Blog
NZ Shareholders Association
NZX

Freightways @ Share Investor

Share Investor's Total Returns: Freightways Ltd
Share Price Alert: Freightways Ltd 3
Share Price Alert: Freightways Ltd 2
Freightways Ltd: 2011 Half Year Profit Commentary
Share Price Alert: Freightways Ltd
Freightways Ltd: 2010 Full Year Profit Analysis
Long Term View: Freightways Ltd
Freightways Ltd: 2010 Half Year profit commentary
Freightways Ltd: 2009 Full Year profit commentary
Freightway's Capital Raising more of the same crap for small shareholders
Long VS Short: Freightways Ltd
Freightway's keeps delivering
Why did you but that stock: Freightways Ltd
Freightway's delivers
Freightway's packages up a good result

Discuss FRE @ Share Investor Forum
Download FRE company Reports




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c Share Investor 2009

Stockmarket Education: How do you buy shares?

Like a piece I wrote a few days ago called Stockmarket Education: What is a Share? the following was inspired by a Google search that reached this blog "How to buy Shares?"

Another bloody good question.

Well, unfortunately one of the first things you will need to do is get yourself a stockbroker.(I say unfortunately because I don't particularly have a high opinion of them) The most popular ways of getting yourself access to one these days is online. One can do this either by hooking up with a dedicated broker that just deals in sharetrading or through your own bank, which in most cases in New Zealand and other countries has a broker service attached to it.

These online brokers, some of which also have telephone services, offer either a "self service" level of brokerage where you do all the research, and selection of shares and execute the buy or sell yourself ranging to a "full service" broker that will do all of the above for you and more if you trade enough!

Beware, and it is only my personal opinion and experience here, full service brokers will try and push their favourite shares on you and their research is more than often than not biased and sometimes suspect in its accuracy and/or knowledge of business or the company being researched. Their loyalties lie with the brokerage company first, not you.

That is why I prefer to use an online broker and do the rest myself. Pick the level of service that is right for you.

The only extra services that I get with my online broker, ASB Securities are:

1. A website with a portfolio and watchlist function.

2. Live share prices with limited market depth - a list of buyers and sellers and the prices being offered and asked.

3. Brief bios of the NZSX companies listed on the NZX - financial ratios, broker ratings.

4. A link to a cash management account through ASB Bank that makes it easy to transfer funds to facilitate share purchases.

When making a buy or sell of a share online you can either sell "at market" (what buyers or sellers on the open market are prepared to pay or sell for) or a pre-determined share price set by you.

The best part of buying online and doing it yourself is that you can do the research at your leisure and set a a buy or sell in off-market hours and the trade will then be made at the price you requested.

The cost for the self service online level of brokerage varies from broker to broker but trading using my online broker, is around NZ$30.00 for a trade of up to NZ$10,000 and at a level of 0.3% brokerage over that. Large trades can be negotiated.

You can find a list of Australian brokers here and New Zealand ones here.

Good luck!

Stockmarket Education

Stockmarket Dictionary
Stockbrokers: What you should know before choosing one
10 Basic questions to ask before investing
How the Stockmarket works
Understanding Risk
Watch Your Risk Tolerance
Stockmarket Education: What is a Share?
What Moves the Stockmarket?
7 Signs of Shareholder Friendly Management
Financial Media For Investors
Dividends in detail

Related Links

NZX - How to Invest


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c Share Investor & Shareinvestor.net.nz 2009