IkeGPS up 8% on contract extension

New Zealand shares finished the day virtually unchanged with little volume traded through the market, but IkeGPS jumped 8.2% after extending a customer contract.

Tuesday, January 18th 2022, 7:02PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose just 7 points, or 0.1%, to 12,814.46. Turnover was much lighter than average at $95 million.

It has been a sleepy start to the week with US markets closed since Friday night and many New Zealanders still away on holiday.

Those who are at work are mostly mulling over the risk of inflation and Chinese economic growth data which beat expectations but still showed the weakest growth since 2020.

In contrast to other central banks, The People's Bank of China cut a key interest rate to provide more support to its economy which helped boost its share market a little.

IkeGPS was the biggest mover among NZX-listed companies today. The infrastructure pole management company jumped more than 8% to 79 cents after it extend a contract.

The company said it had signed an extension with an existing communications customer who was involved in building fibre infrastructure in the United States.

This unnamed customer is now expected to generate more than $4m of transaction revenue for IkeGPS in the coming 12-to-18 months, it said. The same customer already extended its contract in October, which was then worth just $1.6m.

Ike chief executive, Glenn Milnes, said this demonstrated the value the platform provides to communications companies.

“This specific entity has been a customer for several years, growing from an initial annual account size of tens of thousands of dollars to a multi-million-dollar account today,” he said

The company will be releasing its third-quarter performance update at the start of February, and said it has “a high degree of confidence for strong growth”.

Auckland Airport said its interim results for the six months ending December will be announced on Feb 24, with a webcast for analysts and media.

Shares in the company declined 0.3% to $1.50 today but have risen approximately 2% in the past six months.

Employment fintech PaySauce gave a trading update for the October to December period, which showed recurring revenue up 67% year-on-year and 22% from the prior quarter.

The growth comes from having more customers, numbers are up 38% from last year, and increased average processing fees, up 17%, following a price hike in the quarter.

“Our existing customers continue to recognise the value that PaySauce adds to their business and have supported the changes across the board,” said chief executive Asantha Wijeyeratne.

Shares in the small-cap company climbed 1.6% to 32 cents each.

Stock market operator, NZX finished the day unchanged at $1.82 despite Forsyth Barr analyst Jamie Foulkes reiterating an ‘outperform’ rating on the company.

“NZX finished 2021 strongly, with December's monthly operating stats reporting final divisional metrics comfortably in excess of internal targets set at the start of the year for all divisions,” he said.

Foulkes said he expects the company will hit the top of its guidance, which NZX has said will be between $32m and $35m.

Precinct Properties had the biggest fall on the index, down 2% at $1.615.

The kiwi dollar was trading at 68.02 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, up from 67.99 cents yesterday.

Westpac’s head of NZ strategy, Imre Speizer said positioning by futures market speculators was now “modestly short” – meaning more were betting the currency would fall than climb.

Spezier said this was a reversal from mid-December when long positions on the currency were at a three-year high.

Tags: Market Close