Cynics might view vitamins and supplements as little more than snake oil, but Australasian investors are taking a bullish view on the natural products sector's growth prospects, particularly in China.
Vitaco Health Group - whose brands include Healtheries, Nutra-Life and Balance Sport Nutrition - pulled off a successful ASX floaton Wednesday, with its shares closing up 13 per cent at A$2.38 after their first day of trading.
It was an impressive debut for the company, which has three manufacturing sites in Auckland, particularly given the recent rise in market volatility has made investors more cautious about participating in initial public offerings.
Vitaco says it will use the A$231.6 million it raised through the IPO for growth such as a push into markets including China, Britain and Brazil.
Strong Chinese demand is understood to have driven a more than four-fold increase in rival natural products firm Blackmores' share price over the past year.
Shares in Blackmores, which reported an 83 per cent lift in annual profit to A$46.6 million last month, gained 319 per cent over the past 12 months to open at A$130 yesterday - no, there isn't a decimal point missing in that share price.
The full-year result was reportedly so good the firm's staff all received about six weeks' extra pay as a bonus.
Blackmores joined the S&P/ASX 200 index earlier this month.
Fed message critical
The big day has arrived.
This morning we'll find out whether the United States Federal Reserve will lift interest rates from near zero, where they've been held since 2008.
It's a significant moment for sharemarkets, as the US interest rate setting has been a major contributor to the equity bull run of the past several years.
JBWere investment strategist Bernard Doyle says the most important aspect of today's announcement will not be whether United States rates go up, but the language used to explain the decision.
"If they hike, their messaging has to be bang on," he says, adding that if the wording is off the mark it will spook investors, particularly those in emerging markets.
"In terms of market impact and implications it's 50 per cent what they do and 50 per cent how they communicate it ...
"If they do end up hiking they'll have to nail the message perfectly."
So long, Mr Pryke
Long-serving Contact Energy director Phil Pryke's decision to leave the board after 20 years was probably for the best.
Things may well have got ugly had he tried to stay on.
Pryke's retirement, announced last Friday, came just days after the Business Herald reported institutional investors were calling for his resignation.
"It is with a great sense of pride and, I'll admit, a tinge of sadness that I have decided to retire from the board of Contact," Pryke said in a statement to the NZX.
Former Commonwealth Bank of Australia boss Sir Ralph Norris will take over from Pryke as Contact's chairman.
Pryke had a sometimes contentious relationship with shareholders over issues such as his support of takeover and merger bids for the company, including Origin's.
There's a widely held view in the market that Pryke had only stayed on Contact's board for so long because of votes from Origin, which sold its 53.1 per cent stake through a $1.8 billion block sale last month.
"If Phil tries to stay in the role then I think we're likely to see some boilover and more action taken," said one Contact investor before last week's resignation announcement.
This week, another market source said it was ironic that Pryke was departing right at the time when he might have, following Origin's departure, started listening to minority shareholders.
Contact's shares closed steady at $5.09 yesterday.
Spaniard on track to top rich list
Amancio Ortega, owner of Inditex SA.
Spanish fashion baron Amancio Ortega could soon be the world's richest man thanks to his company's surging stock.
Shares in Inditex SA - the world's biggest clothing retailer, whose brands include Zara - jumped 6 per cent yesterday following strong sales numbers, adding US$3.7 billion to Ortega's fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In June, the Spaniard passed US investor Warren Buffett to become the world's second-richest man, behind Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Gates' fortune is now sitting at around US$80.6 billion, compared with Ortega's US$71.1 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Ortega started building his fashion empire in 1963 and opened the first Zara store in 1975.
He has collected some €4 billion in dividends since Inditex's 2001 IPO, most of which has been invested into commercial property in Europe and the United States, Bloomberg said.
