Gas Corp kicks off busy week

By ELLEN READ

Besides the continuing Air New Zealand and Montana stories, a flurry of annual results and meetings will give equity watchers plenty to focus on this week.

Natural Gas Corp kicks off the week today with its annual result, tipped by analysts to be a loss of around $300 million as high wholesale power prices slash earnings.

Ports of Auckland and Sky City reveal their annual balance sheets tomorrow. Analysts are picking a record profit for the casino company of $70 million, up from $60.3 million the previous year.

Fletcher Building and Fletcher Forests release their results on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, and the week rounds off with Michael Hill Jeweller's annual figures on Friday.

The Fletcher releases are the first since the companies separated in March. Both sets of figures will be riddled with unusual items and one-off costs, making analysts wary of forecasts.

They say there is more interest in looking forward, and hope to see Building provide some evidence of a pick-up in the construction sector.

As for annual meetings, shareholders of Dorchester Pacific and Software of Excellence gather on Wednesday and Property Leaders on Thursday.

Friday sees the annual meeting of miner-turned-internet company Heritage Gold. The company lost $50,700 in the year to March 31.

Away from scheduled items, as the month nears its end some news may be forthcoming from the Government on the future ownership of Air New Zealand.

The Government has said it will make a decision on lifting the 25 per cent foreign ownership threshold before the end of the month.

Qantas is seeking a stake in Air New Zealand in a partnership deal that would involve Air New Zealand offloading its struggling, fully owned Australian subsidiary to Singapore Airlines.

The Singapore carrier has said it does not want to buy Ansett or to sell its 25 per cent Air New Zealand stake to Qantas, but is seeking Government approval to increase its holding to 49 per cent.

Last week, Qantas defended the Australian Government's support for its bid to buy 25 per cent of Air New Zealand, with chief executive Geoff Dixon saying the aviation industry was based on more than commercial considerations.

Air New Zealand chief executive Gary Toomey had earlier dismissed as a "myth" the Australian Government's concerns that Qantas would face a "behemoth" if Singapore was allowed to increase its holding in Air New Zealand.

In the Montana saga, Lion Nathan is expected to make a full takeover offer this week for the long-fought-over winemaker.

On Friday, the Stock Exchange Market Surveillance Panel absolved Lion of more foul play over Montana shares, clearing the way for a full takeover bid that is likely to top Allied Domecq's offer of $4.80 a share.

Lion said it would not make a partial bid and that was interpreted as a signal it would make a full bid slightly above the price currently being offered by the British liquor giant.