Litigation, fire, leaky pipes, floods and rising losses have hit the troubled dual-listed manufacturing and distribution giant Fletcher Building.
Even its boss was today unwell, “struck down by a lurgy”.
Yet managing director and group CEO Andrew Reding battled on and said three aspects in the latest year gave hope.
Cutting debt, dealing with legacy problems and reorganising the business were the changes he highlighted in today’s result, where a $419 million loss was declared for the year to June 30, 2025.
Slicing debt from $1.77 billion to $999m after raising $700m, addressing long-standing legacy issues and reorganising the business are achievements in the last year, Reding said.
Revenue fell 9%, losses nearly doubled, dividends remain suspended and revenue in all business units declined.
But Reding remained hopeful.
“We’ve reduced the number and scale of legacy issues, allowing us to focus on the future,” he said.
“The net debt coming down is excellent. We wanted to sort out the legacy issues. The other achievement is the decentralisation of the business and putting more empowerment within the units.”
The company was being “right-sized” for the reality of the market, “but we still want to have the ability to move quickly if the market does actually take off”.
Yet Reding is not expecting improvements in market conditions in the 2026 financial year.
“It’s a very patchy, volatile market out there at the moment. We’re being far more disciplined with our capital spend so if we spend a penny, it’s as though it’s a shareholders’ penny.”
In June, the company reached a settlement with NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi on the Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway project.
It also settled its insurance claims for weather and landslides that hit the project.
Fletcher’s annual report says it “anticipates handing over the NZICC [New Zealand International Convention Centre] to SkyCity during the second half of 2025, prior to SkyCity’s announced opening in February 2026″.
SkyCity is suing Fletcher over the NZICC’s late delivery, but Reding reiterated the company would defend itself vigorously.
Moving on to the Wellington International Airport Carpark project. Fletcher Construction completed the multi-level carpark in late 2018.
But the annual report said the airport had alleged building and adjacent stormwater drainage defects.
It is claiming the cost of remediation and other related losses of approximately $40m.
“As at 30 June 2025, the stormwater drainage remediation works were complete and the project was issued a Final Completion Certificate. Fletcher Construction continues to seek to agree with WIAL [Wellington International Airport Limited] a remediation solution to the quality issues alleged by WIAL and to settle other disputes between them in relation to the project,” the company said.
Asked today what the next steps were, Reding said: “That’s a good question. We’ve been trying to get in there to remediate, so we’re hopeful we will be allowed on site.”
Reding headed a strategic review, implemented a new structure, cut costs and jobs and the company said it could sell off its construction division, although no advancements were announced in the result.
Litigation being brought over the sale of its Australian Tradelink division was “more noise than substance, not something we’re too worried about”, Reding told the Herald.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.