Saturday, August 1, 2009

Sky City debts levels now more manageable

Sky City Entertainment Group [SKC.NZ] has been named by Bruce Sheppard as one of his list of NZX companies with debt worries.

Now that time has passed since Bruce debt analysis, on June 30 2008 figures, lets take a look and see whether his criticism about high debt levels is now warranted.

Lets look at company debt levels from the last 5 years:

FIVE YEAR SUMMARY














Consolidated Balance Sheets













As at 30 June


2008 2007 2006 2005 2004




$000 $000 $000 $000 $000









LIABILITIES















Current liabilities






Payables


121,668 119,501 100,776 97,005 93,619
Interest-bearing liabilities
- - - 100,758 101,000
Derivative financial instruments
- - 25 - -









Total current liabilities
121,668 119,501 100,801 197,763 194,619









Non-current liabilities





Interest-bearing liabilities
677,884 753,002 950,904 956,795 579,967
Subordinated debt - capital notes 123,772 123,756 123,720 121,510 149,644
Subordinated debt - SKYCITY ACES 186,538 161,410 177,956 - -
Deferred tax liabilities
77,891 52,992 60,596 45,438 -
Derivative financial instruments
23,561 50,774 3,072 - -
Convertible notes

- - - - 8,910
Other term liabilities

- - - - 27,216









Total Non-current liabilities
1,089,646 1,141,934 1,316,248 1,123,743 765,737









Total liabilities

1,211,314 1,261,435 1,417,049 1,321,506
960,356

Interest cover (EBITDA/Net Interest) 3.8x 3.3x 3.3x 3.4x 5.1x










Full 5 Year Financial Summary

We can see then that debt incurring interest or charges (of all different types) nearly doubled from 2004-2006 to over NZ $1.3 billion at its highest (due mainly to buying and financing Adelaide and Darwin casinos and cinema assets.) but since then, at balance date 30 June 2008, (Bruce's debt level comparison date) debt had been paid down to just under $1.1 billion.

In addition to that, the company has paid back $84 million with the proceeds of a capital raising and other debt reductions to take total debt to below $ 800 million, still high but more manageable and it leaves net debt to ebitda ratios that Bruce worried about down from 3.8x in June 2008 to below 2.5x as at 9 July 2009, the lowest ratio in 5 years.

This has further been alleviated by a large increase in profit and revenue for the 2009 Full Year result to be announced 26 August.

As I said above, debt levels are still very high but steps have been taken to change that and with good management the company has put itself in a position so that the business is functioning well and is an even better position now to consolidate this debt.

As interesting as Bruce Sheppard's company debt analysis has been it would be even more interesting to see how June 2008 stacks up with June 2009.

In Sky City's case I think he might assess that they have addressed his worries.

They have mine.


Disclosure: I own SKC shares in the Share Investor Portfolio

Sky City Entertainment Group @ Share Investor

Discuss this stock @ Share Investor Forum

Related links

You have to register at Share Investor Forum to see this content

Full 5 Year Financial Summary - Where the table above comes from
Correspondence between Bruce Sheppard & Sky City over debt levels
Sky City July Debt payback

Related Amazon Reading

Casino Industry in Asia Pacific: Development, Operation, And Impact
Casino Industry in Asia Pacific: Development, Operation, And Impact by Cathy Hsu
Buy new: $155.00 / Used from: $157.53
Usually ships in 24 hours


c Share Investor 2009

Friday, July 31, 2009

Stock of the Week: Metlifecare Ltd



Metlifecare Ltd [MET.NZ] has been on my watchlist for yonks. I already own Ryman Healthcare Ltd [RYM.NZ] I love this sector and it is because of its very high historical revenue and profit growth and its similar future protects as the number of older people (especially those greedy economy sucking baby boomers) increases in very large numbers

Metlifecare has been somewhat of a poor cousin to Ryman over the last few years when it comes to its profit. It has had a couple of big asset writedowns over the last 2 years and that has lead to a punishing in its stock price.

A great opportunity.

That is why it makes my Stock of the Week this week (better late than never, I know it is the end of the week) that, and it will bounce back into profit when property prices recover.

The stock has hit a 52 week low of NZ$1.38 and a high of $4.60 but that is well off its all time high of nearly 9 bucks reached not that long ago (see chart above) so you can see the potential for a good long term and medium term gain even if today's closing share price is $2.06.

Buy on weakness, there should be some more for this stock come its profit reporting in November.

Good luck!


Related Share Investor reading

Stocks on My Watchlist: Metlifecare Ltd
Why did you buy that stock? [Ryman Healthcare]
Time for retirement?

Discuss Metlifecare @ Share Investor Forum

Stock of the Week Series

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd

Xero Ltd
Auckland International Airport
Sky City Entertainment Group
Burger Fuel Worldwide
Michael Hill International
Contact Energy Ltd
The Warehouse Group
Fisher & Paykel Appliances

Related Amazon Reading

Small Investor Goes to Market: A Beginner's Guide to Picking Stocks
Small Investor Goes to Market: A Beginner's Guide to Picking Stocks by Jim Gard
Buy new: $14.95 / Used from: $0.01
Usually ships in 24 hours


c Share Investor 2009

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Market announcement delay abandonment should be just the start in NZX restructure

Further to my piece on insider trading of Sky City Entertainment Group [SKC.NZ] shares last week and a convenient waiver given by the NZX for Contact Energy Ltd's [CEN.NZ] David Baldwin to get rewarded for stuffing up, it appears that the NZX is relenting to pressure from the bearded one, Bruce Sheppard from the NZ Shareholders Association, to get market announcements, previously delayed to the poor and downtrodden like you and me, now available.

Those market participants who have had NZX terminals in their offices have been using this information to trade before it is available to us, of course this is highly illegal but as Bruce has pointed out, nobody has been prosecuted by NZX, the market regulator, let alone a case of insider trading taken before.

This delay has always confused me because the advantages this gives users of this information means millions of dollars in their pockets - am I a naive idiot?

It is one of those hangovers from a regulated market that has been held onto with great gusto but other relics of a bygone age still give the advantages to the big boys.

The granting of waivers to break NZX rules, lack of clear separation of the day to day running of the New Zealand Stockmarket and its regulation and the reluctance to piss off mates by prosecuting clear breaches of insider trading rules and other market hanky panky by brokers and insiders really needs to be scrutinized closely by Government stockmarket regulators the Securities Commission because the NZX ain't going to do it.

Sadly this is unlikely to happen in any sort of expedient manner, so it is up to people like you, me and stockmarket advocates like Bruce Sheppard to keep the pressure on Mark Weldon and his mates down there in Wellington.

Of course the thing that would keep the NZX a little more honest would be a little healthy competition, and as I pointed out some ten or so years ago, why couldn't a website be set up for stockmarket investors to directly buy and sell shares without a middleman getting involved?

I'm sure others with the tech savviness that I don't have would be able to pull off such a thing.

A great little opportunity for someone to have a go.


Recent Share Investor Reading


Related Amazon Reading

Investment Intelligence from Insider Trading
Investment Intelligence from Insider Trading by H. Nejat Seyhun
Buy new: $24.00 / Used from: $18.40
Usually ships in 24 hours


c Share Investor 2009

List of Bruce Sheppard's top NZX listed company debt worries (UPDATE 7)

Image result for bruce sheppard

This update adds GFF, SKT & SKC to the List

Further to rumblings made by Bruce Sheppard on behalf of the New Zealand Shareholder's Association in May that in his opinion, roughly 20 listed companies in New Zealand were breaching banking covenants and after writing to these companies 2 so far have replied to Bruce. He is naming names as each company replies to him.


1. Fisher & Paykel Appliances [FPA.NZ]

2. Nuplex [NPX.NZ]

3. Tourism Holdings [THL.NZ] - Read THL's letter to Bruce
4. Vector Ltd [VCT.NZ] - Read VCT's letter to Bruce

5. Freightways Ltd [FRE.NZ] - Read Bruce's letter to FRE & the reply
6. Skellerup Holdings [SKL.NZ] - Read Bruce's letter to SKL & the reply

7. Comvita Ltd [CVT.NZ] - Read Bruce's letter to CVT & the reply

8. Ebos Ltd [EBO.NZ] - Read Bruce's letter to EBO & the reply

9. Abano Healthcare Group [ABA.NZ] Read Bruce's letter to ABA & the reply

10. Metlifecare Ltd [MET.NZ] Read Bruce's letter to MET & the reply

11. Restaurant Brands Ltd [RBD.NZ] Read Bruce's letter to RBD & the reply

12. Kirkcaldie & Stains [KRK.NZ] Read Bruce's letter to KRK & the reply

13. Sky Network TV [SKT.NZ] Read Bruce's letter to SKT *

14. Sky City Entertainment Group [SKC.NZ] Read Bruce's letter to SKC & the reply

15. Goodman Fielder [GFF.NZ] Read Bruce's letter to GFF & the reply *


I will post the rest here as and when the other 5 odd companies reply to Brucie.

The laggers need to get a wriggle on, otherwise it wont look good for them.

Bruce is going to list those that didn't reply to him next week.


Disc I own FRE, SKC & GFF shares in the Share Investor Portfolio


Related Links

NZ Shareholders Association

Recent Share Investor Reading


Discuss this topic @ Share Investor Forum




c Share Investor 2009