Sky City to Focus on Gaming

I was going to write about something completely different today but that can wait.

Something I have been writing about for years 1 2 3 has finally happened at Sky City Entertainment Group [SKC.NZ]. They have ditched their money losing Sky City Cinema Division.

CEO Nigel Morrison hinted at it in an interview I did with him back in September:

SI - The SkyCity Cinema division has always been a challenge, to put it mildly. How do you see its fit within your gaming assets given its poor operating history and low to negative returns over a long period?

NM - As I’ve always said since my arrival at SKYCITY, I don’t believe that SKYCITY Cinemas is a core division of our Group. Our Cinemas team, led by Jane Hastings, has done a good job turning around this division in 2009 and we are looking for better performance again in 2010.

He was a little more revealing off the record at the time but either way this Sky City shareholder is very happy about the news.

With the dropping of the cinema division the company will now be able to focus on the casino assets that made the company a shareholder favourite in the 1990s until early 2000s when this asset started to suck money out of the company and the attention of directors and the former CEO Evan Davies.

They are getting NZ$59 million (subject to due diligence and regulatory approval) from Australia based cinema operator Amalgamated Holdings Ltd [AHD.AU] and the good news is that this excludes land and leases held by the company. Presumably this means that if sold in a February deadline Amalgamated will be paying rentals to Sky City - such a lovely thought!

The cinema division was bought for a total of just north of NZ$100 million years ago and was completely written off on the balance sheet 2 years back, so the realisation of nearly $60 million, plus hanging onto assets in the company actually worth something (the cinemas as such made no money) is a great outcome for the company and its long suffering shareholders.

The only decision to be made now is whether the proceeds of the sale will be used to pay down additional debt or distributed to shareholders as a special dividend - I would support the former.



Sky City shares rose 3c in a down market on larger than average volume on the news, indicating that the market has been looking forward to this result.

Disclosure: I own SKC shares in the Share Investor Portfolio


Share Investor Interviews

Share Investor Interview: Sky City CEO, Nigel Morrison

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• Sky City CEO resigns
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• Sky City Casino 2007 HY Profit(analysis)
• Sky City Casino 2007 HY Profit

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c Share Investor 2009

Long Term Play: The Warehouse Group

I grabbed another 7000 shares of The Warehouse Group [WHS.NZ] back in July when the price came down below 4 bucks. That was for my long term portfolio.

I gave my readers the heads up back in September that there was short term money to be made by buying WHS stock at just over 4 bucks those that took up the offer would have been able to make a good 10% on their money in a few weeks if they timed things right.

The Warehouse share price hit $4.08 at close of business on the NZX last Friday (see chart above) after ditching its dividend the previous week and this investor is watching closely again for the share price to drift back below his buying price barrier so he can add more stock to his portfolio.

First quarter sales have stabilized and a slight rise is apparent for whatever reason.

The stock is a good yield play with over 6% gross PA return on current shares prices and dividend payouts, so it beats term deposits hands down which currently languish at just over 5%.



My interest is clearly going to be piqued at closer to the $3.72 I paid for additional stock in July and I am going to have to use borrowed money this time to secure any possible purchase.

The revolving credit line I have sits at 5.5% floating so when imputation credits are added I am still up on any possible deal.

I am looking at adding 5000 more to take my long term holding to 20000.



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c Share Investor 2009

Are we there yet?

Has the stockmarket and wider economy in New Zealand and abroad made a recovery as many commentators have pitched or are we in the middle of something that we don't really have any idea about what will happen?

Well, it depends on who you read, watch or listen to.

I am of the strong opinion that in New Zealand we are in a middle of a downturn that could go either way depending on the reactions to economic conditions.

So far that has included pumping large amounts of borrowed moola into financial institutions and other quasi Government diaspora in order to smooth out the financial bumps and "rescue" us from the worst parts of the recession - the opposite of what we should have done and what got us into the economic toilet in the first place.

This has kinda worked if one doesn't go deeper than a politician looking in the mirror but of course it really is a false economy because in order for a sustained crawl back into the black these "stimulus" packages need to continue and in order for that to happen we have the have the Chinese saver ready and willing to continue to have their savings plundered in order for our emperors keep their clothes.

Is that going to happen? clearly not and when we stop gorging off the hard work of the Asian region we have to eventually pay them back and that is when the hard part comes.

All our money going into paying back what we owe not on stimulating the economy, boy its a circular thing aint it?

Many will know that I am of the opinion that those that took the big risks (individuals and institutions) and made the big money should have been left to fail, for that is the natural order of things and of course teaches good life lessons along the way. If we had left things to collapse we would be on a sure upwards trend in terms of the economy and not the present shaky, socialist type unsureness that we currently find ourselves wallowing in.

Our bailouts, stimulus packages and taxpayer funded car and house purchasing is simply delaying the inevitable downturn. When that happens I do not know but it will and will make the current financial melee look like a walk in the park by comparison.

We will get to our destination in the end though, wherever that is.

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c Share Investor 2009

What Infratil sale of Auckland Airport stake means

The sale of Infratil Ltd [IFT.NZ] 3.87% stake in Auckland International Airport to institutions [AIA.NZ] 3 days ago at first look might not seem good news for existing shareholders.

All is not lost however!

Infratil management state that their reason for selling was "consistent with recent capital management initiatives and provided additional flexibility to fund current and future opportunities".

That means they pretty much took a bath on their short term punt on the airport being sold 2 years ago and when the brakes were put on it by the outgoing Labour Government they held on for too long.

Of course another port sale could be way off in the distance but an investigation into the relaxing of the rules of "sensitive strategic" assets by the National Government earlier this year means that this would be more likely given another bid for the airport.

What is more important to Auckland International Airport shareholders is that the company is doing OK during the current downturn -stagnant profits are all the rage - and is likely to do significantly better in the long term.

The Canadians and Arabs were willing to pay 100% more than the current share price (oh that seems so long ago) so there is still value left in the near monopoly company that is the Auckland Airport.

And that fellow shareholders is the way you should be looking at the Ifratil sale.


Disclosure: I own AIA shares




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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