KEY POINTS:
Northland Port Corporation chairman Mike Daniel wants to buy back shares and take the company off the stock exchange.
The NZX-listed firm yesterday posted a 22 per cent rise in revenue to $2.9 million for the six months ended December 31, although net profit of $1.8 million was
down 80 per cent on the previous year which had included a one-off surplus of $7.6 million from selling shares in Marsden Cove.
The company is 52 per cent owned by Northland Regional Council and 20 per cent by Ports of Auckland.
There was no agreement or a timetable for a delisting.
"If the regional council said, 'Oh, we think that's a good idea,' we'd be into it."
Daniel said the directors saw little need to continue the listing, with costs estimated at up to $500,000 a year, minimal turnover and little likelihood of needing access to capital in the future.
If all the shares were bought back, the council would be the sole owner, or if Ports of Auckland held onto its stake the council would own 72 per cent and Ports of Auckland 28 per cent.
The board had been considering alternatives for the future - including the minority buyout and delisting - and because none could progress in the immediate future a buyback of up to about 5 per cent of issued capital at market prices would start in the next few days.
The best option would be to sell the company, Daniel said.
"They'd [the council] free up a whole lot of money and they could use it somewhere else."
At last year's annual general meeting Daniel said a sale could realise $150 million and give the council $75 million to invest in the region or in Government stock where it could earn about $5.5 million, more than three times the return likely from the status quo.
"It just seems to be a logical thing to do, to have your cake and eat it, have that money and the port and its infrastructure's still there."
However, the directors had respected the council's strategic asset ownership philosophy and its assurance that voters would oppose a change in ownership, and therefore saw little merit in pursing a sale, although the status quo was not in the best interest of all shareholders.
The port sector needed rationalisation, Daniel said. "It is inevitable but unfortunately it's held up once again, in my view, by too much local body ownership and they've got different aspirations."
The port sector essentially had a management team at every bus stop.
"It could be organised with one management team and then you'd have the clout to challenge the shipping companies who at the moment are just draining the regional councils of profitability, of money, because they're playing one off against the other."
Northland Port Corporations' main operating investment was a half stake in the operational port business Northport, of which Port of Tauranga owned the other half.
Northland Stevedoring Services recorded a good first half while North Port Coolstores benefited through high demand for dairy product freezer space as international demand slowed for Fonterra product, the company said.
Shares closed steady yesterday at $2.69.
