Feltex share list at 4.7pc discount

1.00pm

Feltex Carpets, an icon New Zealand brand, relisted on the stock exchange today after a gap of nearly 20 years.

But the listing was inauspicious.

The shares listed at $1.62 -- an 8 cent, or 4.7 per cent, discount to the $1.70 issue price.

The issue price was at the bottom of an initial indicative offer range of $1.70-$1.95.

The carpet manufacturer's listing is the biggest in this country for five years since Contact Energy was listed.

With nearly 150 million shares on issue, the company is capitalised at $242 million which will put it in the top 30 stocks.

The company was floated after Feltex's owner of the past eight years, Credit Suisse First Boston Asian Merchant Partners (CSFBAMP), decided to sell its shareholding.

Feltex is projecting a gross dividend yield of 8.6 per cent to 9.6 per cent for the 2005 financial year. The $9 million dividend payout will be paid in October for the second half of the June 2004 financial year.

The company is forecasting earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) of $46 million for the current financial year, which it expects to rise 13 per cent to $52 million the following year.

It is forecasting a net profit of $26.5 million this financial year, falling to $25.8 million next year. Net operating revenue is expected to grow from a forecast $335.5 million this year to $348.1 million in 2005.

Feltex began operating in New Zealand in 1929, manufacturing felt shoes and it started making carpet in the 1940s. It was last listed in the mid-1980s as a conglomerate with more than 8000 staff.

It became one of the investments of Alan Hawkins' Equiticorp - the bull market behemoth that turned bear market basketcase.

Britain-based BTR Nylex bought the carpet interests from Equiticorp's statutory managers in 1989 and then, in 1997, Credit Suisse First Bostom became the majority owner.

Feltex bought the Australian carpet interests of Shaw Industries for $149 million in March 2000 - an acquisition that proved difficult to digest, with the company reporting losses in the 2001 and 2002 financial years.

It is one of the two largest manufacturers of carpets in Australasia with annual sales of over $310 million.

The company produces over 17 million square metres of carpet a year, representing a market share in Australasia of about 25 per cent.

Feltex Carpets operates six factories in New Zealand and four in Australia and also has a 50 per cent stake in the Australian carpet retailer Carpet Call.

- NZPA