It’s Wednesday, and two of the companies the industry uses as a proxy for its own health spent yesterday explaining what they are worth to people who would like to buy them. Here’s what’s moving.
Tourism Holdings turned last year’s $25.8 million loss into a $38.4 million profit, and both bidders finally have an audited number
Tourism Holdings published its FY26 result and integrated annual report yesterday. Reported net profit after tax was $38.4 million, against a loss of $25.8 million the year before. Underlying net profit after tax came in at $46.1 million, up from $34.5 million, a rise of 34 percent. Revenue went the other way, falling to $852.9 million from $894.1 million, down 4.6 percent. The dividend went to 10.5 cents a share from 6.5 cents.
Less revenue and considerably more profit is the entire result in one line, and it was bought rather than earned. The company consolidated its Australasian manufacturing into Hamilton, exited two loss-making Australian dealerships, launched a redesigned Winnebago range, opened a new Queenstown site on 17 August and took roughly $5 million of cost out of the business. Chief executive Grant Webster described it as a year of delivering hard actions, and said the March disruption from the Middle East conflict told the company that a portion of demand had been deferred rather than lost. The forward indicators support him. New Zealand intake is up 40 percent over the last four weeks, recent United States intake is tracking 45 percent ahead, Canada is on track for record rental revenue this summer, and Southern Hemisphere bookings are ahead of last year.
The audience is what makes this result different from any other. Board chair Cathy Quinn confirmed two non-binding indicative proposals are still under review, with no certainty either becomes a transaction. The BGH Capital consortium, working with Trouchet family interests that already hold about 19.9 percent, is at $3.10 a share, valuing the company at roughly $686 million. A second party the board describes as a credible strategic buyer is at $3.30 to $3.40, a mid-point of about $741 million. The board has not named it. Every valuation argument in that process has until now been run off guidance that was cut in May and lifted again in July. Both sides now have twelve audited months to argue from, and a business that has just demonstrated it can grow profit while revenue falls.
Stat of the day
$46.1m
Tourism Holdings' underlying net profit after tax for FY26, up 34 percent on revenue that fell 4.6 percent. (RNZ)
SkyCity turned down 70 cents and 75 cents a share, and the stock is now at 66
SkyCity disclosed yesterday that it received two confidential, unsolicited, conditional and non-binding takeover proposals earlier this year and rejected both. A fund managed by Oaktree Capital indicated 70 cents a share in cash, about $770 million. A second party, not identified, proposed an implied 75 cents, about $825 million. The board unanimously determined that neither adequately reflected the underlying value of the company and that the conditions were problematic. It told both parties it would consider revised and improved offers. Neither came back.
The conditions are the part worth reading twice. Both bidders wanted at least eight weeks of due diligence and time to arrange debt financing, exclusivity as the only party at the table, and undertakings that SkyCity would not sell any assets while they looked. That last one asks the company to stop doing the thing it has publicly committed to doing. SkyCity is running an asset monetisation programme aiming to raise $275 million to $300 million, has The Grand Hotel on the market, and opened a strategic review of its Adelaide casino last week. Freezing that for two months, in exchange for a price the board had already judged too low, was never going to fly.
Shares were trading around 66 cents after the disclosure, below both rejected offers, in a twelve-month range of 46 to 99 cents. That gap is the uncomfortable part. The board is telling shareholders the company is worth more than 75 cents while the market prices it at 66, in the same fortnight it reported net profit down to $18.2 million from $29.2 million, put about 200 roles into consultation and declined to give FY27 guidance until the annual meeting in October. Both things can be true at once. Only one of them is currently being paid for.
Originair’s Westport route has days of funding left, and the summit meets on the West Coast tomorrow
Development West Coast’s support for the Wellington to Westport service expires at the end of this week, and without a replacement the direct link goes. Originair managing director Robert Inglis says the route needs about a 70 percent load factor and around 350 net fares to stand on its own, and it has been running at 60 to 70 percent. The service has been costing shareholders roughly $500,000 a year, flown on an 18-seat Jetstream, and Inglis is blunt that the rest of the network cannot be put at risk to keep it. Fuel prices following the Middle East conflict were the final straw rather than the cause.
The ask is not a cheque. Originair wants the government to change the criteria for regional development funding so a route like this can draw annual support instead of a series of month-long reprieves, and Inglis has a meeting with ministers set down for early next week. MBIE had not commented at the time of publication. This is the third time in a year the same route has reached the same cliff. Sounds Air withdrew from Westport in December 2024, Originair picked it up, warned in autumn that it would stop, and resumed on 18 May only because Development West Coast approved one month of support while central government considered a longer answer. That answer has not arrived.
The timing is close to unkind. Development West Coast hosts the West Coast Tourism Summit tomorrow at Monteith’s Brewery in Greymouth, bringing the region’s operators together to talk about the season ahead. The same organisation has been funding the region’s air link to the capital a month at a time, and its money runs out two days after the hui.
Source: RNZ · Development West Coast · Development West Coast
The fund keeping four regional airlines airborne has about $6.9 million left in it
Originair is asking into a pot that is most of the way gone. The Regional Infrastructure Fund’s concessionary loan round for regional airlines was set at $30 million. Air Chathams has taken $17.2 million, including refinancing close to $6 million of bank debt. Sounds Air has $4.5 million for fleet and refinancing, Golden Bay Air $1.1 million, and Island Air $252,000. That is about $23.1 million committed, leaving roughly $6.9 million unallocated.
What the money bought is worth being honest about. Sounds Air cut two routes and sold six aircraft, and managing director Andrew Crawford has said that may not be the end of it. Air Chathams put a $20 fuel surcharge on every ticket and cut scheduled flights to Whakatāne, Whanganui and Kāpiti. Golden Bay Air reduced its Wellington to Tākaka frequency. Every one of those carriers took a loan and shrank anyway, which tells you the lending refinanced balance sheets rather than restored routes.
Associate Transport Minister James Meager has said the government prefers investing in infrastructure to paying direct subsidies, has tasked the Civil Aviation Authority with a wider rules reform programme, and is considering intervention triggers for at-risk routes serving vulnerable areas. Considering is doing a lot of work in that sentence. The country has now put more than $30 million into emergency lending for regional aviation, on top of what went in during Covid, without setting out what the regional network is supposed to look like or who is meant to pay for it. Westport is where that gap turns into a timetable.
Source: RNZ · B2B News · ch-aviation
Coming up
- Today, 26 August Accommodation Data Programme, July 2026
- 27 August West Coast Tourism Summit at Monteith’s Brewery, Greymouth, and Tourism Volumes and Flows for July
- 28 August Air New Zealand FY26 annual results before the market opens, July Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates on the revised basis, Development West Coast’s support for the Wellington to Westport service runs out, and Titanic: The Human Story opens in Auckland
- 28 August to 3 September The North Face Frontier at The Remarkables, Queenstown
- 29 August Crown Princess opens Auckland’s cruise season at Queens Wharf
- 31 August The new runway end safety area rule takes effect, and submissions close at 5pm on the Wānaka freedom camping bylaw changes
- Week of 31 August Originair meets ministers on changing the criteria for regional development funding
- 1 September International Visitor Survey for the June quarter, the general whitebait season opens, and Avani Queenstown opens
- 13 September Auckland’s City Rail Link opens to passengers
- October SkyCity’s annual meeting, where it will update the market on FY27 after giving no guidance with its FY26 result
- 7 October Last day to submit draft group, tour escort and ADS FIT visa applications started in the old Immigration Online system
- 26 October Air New Zealand becomes the first international airline into Western Sydney Airport
- 7 November General election
That's today's briefing. The Shoulder Season is back every weekday morning.