Comvita buzzing after takeover bid; NZX 50 up 0.6%

A trio of inoffensive earnings reports have been overshadowed by yet another takeover bid on the New Zealand sharemarket.

Monday, August 18th 2025, 6:02PM

by BusinessDesk

The benchmark S&P/NZX 50 climbed 0.63% to 12,970.64 points on Monday with 29.5 million shares worth $147m changing hands.

Paul Robertshawe, Octagon's chief investment officer, said despite being in the throes of earnings season, the big news of the day was small-cap Comvita.

The Mānuka honey company received a takeover bid from Florenz, a subsidiary of Mark Stewart's investment company, Masthead.

If successful, shareholders will receive 80 cents per share (cps), a premium of 67% to Comvita’s closing share price on Aug 15.

Shares rose 58.33% to 76 cents after the bid, which has unanimous support from the board, was announced.

“It's the number one brand in China. [Management] haven't been very good at turning that value into free cash flow back here in New Zealand,” Robertshawe said.

“Clearly, the board decided this is the best risk-adjusted outcome for the business.”

Earnings

The a2 Milk Company jumped 2.64% to $8.95 after it announced in its annual result that it had inked a long-awaited deal to purchase Yashili’s NZ plant for $282m. It also sold its stake in Mataura Valley Milk to Open Country Dairy.

Robertshawe said a2 had sold “one loss-making business for another”.

“In terms of launching new products into China, this is a better fit, but it's also a less mature asset with what looks like bigger earnings losses in the short run, until they can ramp up volumes.”

The dairy firm dominated volumes on Monday, with over $40m in value traded.

Contact Energy reported a 13% increase in net profit after tax (npat) to $331m on the back of new geothermal generation.

The results include a one-off $98m gain from releasing a provision on its Ahuroa Gas Storage (AGS) contract. Excluding that non-cash adjustment, underlying profit was $261m, well ahead of 2024.

Robershawe said the Contact result was “bang in line” with market expectations. The stock gained 1.34% to $9.05.

Freightways rose 1.56% to $11.74 after it too disclosed a lift in profits. The firm noted that GDP figures for NZ had contracted in the year to March, whereas its revenue for the 2025 year was up 6.6% to $1.3 billion.

Across the three big disclosures, Robertshawe said there were no “negative shocks".

Small-cap firm Blis Technologies was the day’s largest decliner, falling 5.26% to 1.8 cents after disclosing "one-off cost pressures" had impacted profit in a quarterly update.

Looking ahead

Away from earnings, Michael Hill International shares climbed 1.12% to 45 cents after it announced the appointment of Jonathan Waecker as its new chief executive officer.

Andrew Lowe, who has served as interim CEO since Daniel Bracken passed away in February, will resume his position as chief financial and supply chain officer.

Looking ahead, Mercury will report its full-year results on Tuesday, and Infratil will hold its annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday.

Mercury rose 2.08% to $6.39 on Monday, while Infratil lifted 2.22% to $12.205.

Robertshawe said Infratil has released “constant commentary” over the last few weeks about different aspects of its business.

“I wouldn't expect anything too massive at the meeting,” he said. “They've got an investor day in September. That's where I'd expect any bigger announcements to come from.”

Tags: Market Close