NZ sharemarket lifts despite a2 Milk downgrade and takeover bid for KFC owner Restaurant Brands
The New Zealand sharemarket rose on Wednesday, despite an analyst downgrade of a2 Milk and confirmation of a takeover offer for Restaurant Brands from its largest shareholder.
Wednesday, October 15th 2025, 6:33PM
by BusinessDesk
The S&P/NZX 50 Index closed up 0.23% or 30.41 points to 13,307.40 after 40.8 million shares worth $137.7m were traded.
The S&P/NZX 20 index was up, closing at 7,615.49 points, up 0.13%, while the S&P/NZX 10 index ended the day at 12,666.06, rising 0.06%.
There were 87 gainers and 49 decliners on the main board.
'Stretched'
Hamilton Hindin Greene investment adviser Jeremy Sullivan said the market was on the positive side after a mixed handover from the United States.
a2 Milk's share price lifted by 1.63% or 17c to $10.57 on turnover worth $4.8m despite a downgrade from Jarden analysts from neutral to underweight.
The analysts argued that the company’s future growth prospects were now priced into the current share price, making it an overpriced investment.
“On P/E [price to earnings] multiple, current pricing also looks stretched, factoring in strong near-term growth as permanent. Key risks: China macro issues, competition and execution of own manufacture transition,” the analysts said.
Vital Healthcare's share price fell 3.14% or 7c to $2.16 after it gave an update on some of its recent transactions.
“A few of them are going through at book value, which is good, but one of the Australian buildings sold for about 10 to 15% below book value, so that’s just weighing on that stock a little bit today,” Sullivan said.
“They’re primarily Australian-based healthcare, so we’re closely watching what things are doing over there as far as the realisation programme that they have to reduce debt.”
Apple grower Scales upgraded its earnings guidance for 2025, with its underlying net profit expected to be between $54m and $59m, up from a previous guidance range of $51m-$56m.
Scales’ share price lifted 4.21% or 24c to $5.94.
“They don’t seem to be able to do anything wrong at the moment. Strong operational performance, resilience among geopolitical risks, there’s plenty of confidence in their outlook.”
Meanwhile, KFC owner Restaurant Brands’ largest shareholder, Finaccess, officially launched its takeover bid for the business at $5.05 per share, representing a 70.6% premium on the share price prior to the notice of intent.
Sullivan said it was “pretty much” a done deal thanks to Finaccess’ majority share and the backing of the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).
Restaurant Brands’ share price rose 1.62% or 8c to $5.03 after 495,481 shares changed hands on a turnover of $2.49m.
International news
European and US stock markets fell before recovering somewhat as investors weighed trade tensions between Beijing and Washington and digested fresh commentary from the Federal Reserve.
Wall Street indices opened firmly in the red amid the latest back-and-forth involving the US and China on trade. But US stocks recovered somewhat following midday remarks from Fed chair Jerome Powell.
Powell’s observation that US payroll gains have “slowed sharply” strengthened confidence that the US central bank would cut interest rates later this month.
“In this less dynamic and somewhat softer labour market, the downside risks to employment appear to have risen,” Powell said.
While two of the three major US indices still finished in the red, the broad-based S&P 500 shed just 0.2% at 6,644.31, about 90 points above its session low.
The Nasdaq closed down 0.8% at 22,521.70, while the Dow Jones closed up 0.4% at 46,270.46.
– Additional reporting AFP
| « NZ sharemarket down 0.5% amid PGW shuffle | NZ sharemarket rises in late trading as Infratil rallies on datacentre deal » |
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