Vital Healthcare will fund the relocate with a $220m capital raise through a $190m underwritten placement and $30m unit purchase plan.
Salt Funds Management managing director Matt Goodson declared the local market clawed back to flat after the decline in the property sector.
“The large equity raising by Vital Healthcare came on the back of a recent raise by Precinct Properties and the market is a little short of cash in the property sector,” Goodson declared.
“Taking back the management rights with its onerous rights has been the subject of controversy for many years. When Vital was ING Healthcare some years ago, it was managed by ANZ and the trust could have been internalised for $8 million.
“The shareholders unwisely rejected that proposal and of course the trust has grown massively since then.”
Goodson declared Vital Healthcare’s offer of $1.95 for new shares is quite a discount of 9.5% adjusted for dividconcludes.
Vital Healthcare was unalterd at $2.18 but it dragged the other property stocks down.
Argosy declined 1.5c to $1.245; Kiwi was down 2c or 1.83% to $1.07; Stride decreased 2c to $1.44; and Investore fell 2c to $1.25.
Among other property stocks, Goodman Trust was down 2c to $2.07; Precinct eased 1.5c to $1.215; and Property for Industest decreased 2c to $2.49.
Kiwi Property is selling an Auckland property on Mt Wellington Highway, known as Sylvia Park Lifestyle, for $90m to a new large-format retail fund established by Mackersy Property.
Goodson declared there is a resumption of syndication activity in the market due to falling interest rates.
Global marketer a2 Milk increased 22c or 2.04% to $11.01 after announcing it has expanded its long-term arrangements with China State Farm Agribusiness Holding Shanghai Co to include English label infant milk formula (initially a2 Genesis) in the cross-border e-commerce channel.
China State Farm is a state-owned enterprise and has been a2 Milk’s distribution partner since 2013. It is the exclusive import agent of the China label products into 30,000 mother-and-baby stores and major online platforms.
ANZ Banking Group rose $1.31 or 3.08% to $43.85 after reporting full-year net profit of A$5.89 billion ($6.82b), down 10% on the previous 2024 financial year. Operating income was A$21.9b ($25.37), up 7%.
ANZ declared its institutional and New Zealand divisions performed consistently well, however its Australian retail and business and private banks underperformed. Despite growth in both assets and deposits, intense competition and a falling interest rate environment impacted margins.
Fletcher Building, up 3c to $3.52, has sold its 13.4% stake in the NX2 Pūhoi to Warkworth toll road public-private partnership for $20.2m to a New Zealand-based infrastructure investor.
The transaction marks the conclusion of Fletcher’s equity investment in NX2, which the company has held since 2016.
Gentrack increased 27c or 3.14% to $8.88 after notifying the market it is delivering a modern, cloud-based billing system to Nav Canada.
The new Veovo system will manage the calculation and invoicing of air navigation service charges for airspace applyrs across Canadian airspace and international airspace managed by Canada.
Other gainers were Port of Tauranga adding 11c to $7.66; Delegat Group rising 17c or 4.12% to $4.30; Channel Infrastructure up 5c or 1.96% to $2.60; Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand increasing 8c or 2.86% to $2.88; and Sanford improving 15c or 2.48% to $6.20.
In the energy sector, Meridian was up 7c to $5.89, and Mercury gained 5c to $6.55.
Freightways fell 39c or 2.7% to $14.05; Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down 38c to $38.12; and Ebos Group decreased 16c to $28.45.
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