19 Nov 2019

Today's business news: What you need to know

4:18 pm on 19 November 2019

Latest - Listed property investor and developer Stride is selling three big retail sites to Investore.

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The Bunnings Warehouse in Mt Roskill is one of the stores being bought by Investore. Photo: 123rf.com

The sites are the Bunnings site in Mt Roskill and the Mount Wellington shopping centre in Auckland, along with the Bay Central Shopping Centre in Tauranga.

The price is just under $141 million and includes the cost of seismic strengthening work and expansion of one of the sites.

Investore will raise $80m to help pay for the deal through a share issue to big investors worth $65m with the balance to be raised with an issue to existing shareholders.

Stride owns just under 20 percent of Investore and says it will take part in the share issue to maintain the level of its stake.

Ebos' major shareholder reduces its stake

Sybos Holdings currently holds 37 percent of Ebos, the listed pharmaceuticals and animals goods company, and is selling a quarter of its holding - 15 million shares - to invited institutional investors.

Australian media reports say the shares have been offered at $22.50, close to a 10 percent discount to its closing price yesterday, and worth in total about $337 million.

That's resulted in the local price falling more than 7 percent in local trading today.

Rakon delivers another disappointing result

The electronic chip manufacturer's net profit for the six months to September is down 34 percent to $1.3 million, while revenue was up 7 percent to nearly $57m.

Rakon's expenses rose 7 percent, while net debt was nearly twice what it was the year earlier.

Blis Technologies posts half year profit

The biotech company says all regions are experiencing sales growth, driving first half revenue up 75 percent.

The company's net profit for the six months ended in September is $750,000, compared with a loss of $500,000 last year.

Sales for the period are $5.3 million, with 50 percent growth in the Asia-Pacific region, including New Zealand.

It says the distribution agreement with Australia's iNova Pharmaceuticals was also performing well, while the Japanese market has also had consistent ordering from an established customer base.

The company is working on developing a cross-border online sales channel to China and a launch into the Canadian market.

It expects the full year underlying profit to be similar to last year's.

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