Core Securities

No Shortage of Excellent Long Term Share Price Performances
Many environmental stocks have shown outstanding share price performance since their listing on the ASX. Here are seven examples that prove that good stock selection among environmental stocks can lead to excellent share price performance and capital gains. Eco Investor classifies all seven stocks as core securities and so their total shareholder return would be higher as they also pay dividends. In alphabetical order the seven are... More

First Sustainability Report for GWA
Water management company GWA has produced its first stand alone Sustainability Report. In previous years sustainability was covered in its annual reports. The company says sustainability is at the core of its business, and that its objectives are to operate sustainably by managing its resources as efficiently as possible, acting in a socially responsible manner, and providing products and systems that offer better water saving solutions. More

Contact Energy Promotes its Sustainability
New Zealand utility Contact Energy has promoted its sustainability credentials to an international audience in Europe, saying it is remains committed to decarbonization and working to lower the carbon emissions of its own operations and those of its customers, partners and suppliers. More

International Acquisition for GWA
When GWA Group sold its Door & Access Systems business for $107 million it said it would invest some of the capital in expanding its Bathrooms & Kitchens business and it has done that with an offer to acquire Auckland based and New Zealand Stock Exchange listed Methven Ltd. More

The Season of Sustainability Reports
The annual report season is quickly followed by the annual sustainability report season and this year there seem to be more sustainability reports than usual, which is not surprising as some companies have brought out their first reports. Among the core environmental stocks to have recently produced sustainability reports are Tassal, New Zealand King Salmon, New Energy Solar, Blackmores, and Kathmandu, while Bingo Industries, Cleanaway and Sims Metal Management have included a sustainability report or review in their annual reports. More

Tassal to Boost Australian Prawn Farming
Tassal has become one of Australia's largest prawn farmers and aims to lead the growth in Australia's prawn aquaculture industry following its acquisition of the Fortune Group. More

New Zealand Utilities Promote Electric Vehicles
Electrifying New Zealand's transport sector makes a lot of commercial and environmental sense. And with New Zealand's electricity grid showing little growth in demand, it is not surprising that New Zealand's utilities are prime promoters of electric cars. More

A Good Future for Manufactured Housing
The future of manufactured housing looks good with Ingenia Communities Group publishing a chart showing strong growth and outperformance in the US of manufactured housing compared to other commercial property sectors. More

Cleaner Eco Focus for Gale Pacific
Gale Pacific has come a long way in its plan to become a focused technical fabrics company as it has now sold most of its non-core businesses. In the process it has improved its environmental focus. More

More Light on Beacon Solar
So far Beacon Lighting has given little information on how its small growth business, Beacon Solar, is going. This year there is a tad more information. Beacon is near the end of a National Solar Project installing 4 MW of solar energy on the roofs of over 70 of its retail stores. More

Meridian Energy Looks for Growth Options
With the New Zealand electricity market experiencing flat demand over the past five years, utility company Meridian Energy is looking at a number of strategies to grow its sales. All of these focus on its commitment to being a sustainable business that generates only renewable energy, mostly hydro with some wind energy in both New Zealand and Australia. More

Pacific Energy Tracking Well
In May Pacific Energy's share price touched 76.5 cents, and in February it touched 77 cents - only half a cent off its all time high. The point however is that the all time high was in November 1999, nearly 18 years ago. Since 2016 the share price has more than doubled from 35 cents. The company looks to have got its act together and has released an impressive set of charts to illustrate its growth. More

Australia Contributes to Metro Glass Profit
Australian Glass Group, which New Zealand's Metro Performance Glass acquired last September, has contributed to Metro Glass' strong revenue growth and net profit. For the year to 31 March, Metro Glass' revenue grew by 30 per cent to NS$244.3 million, while its New Zealand based revenue grew 14 per cent to NZ$213.8 million. More

Qube Starts Work on Rail Precinct
Qube Holdings has officially commenced construction of its Moorebank Logistics Park, which will be the largest intermodal logistics precinct in Australia. It has also commenced an underwritten $350 million equity raising to help fund the new warehousing and growth expenditure. More

Blackmores on Four Corners
Vitamin and mineral companies Swisse and to a lesser extent Blackmores were part of an ABC Four Corners program that was critical of complementary medicines. Although the sales of supplements are strong and growing both in Australia and overseas, the program cast doubt on the level of health benefits, if any, of many of the products. More

New Farming Methods for Tassal
Tassal said it would implement innovative fish farming techniques at Okehampton Bay in Tasmania now that the Marine Farming Planning Review Panel has assessed that the company's lease at the Bay is suitable for salmon farming. More

Four Year High for Sims Metal
There is a very strong correlation between Sims Metal Management's buy and sell prices and the prices of iron ore and coking coal, and ferrous prices on the London Metals Exchange, said Sims' managing director and chief executive officer, Galdino Claro, at the company's annual general meeting. More

Holiday Park Acquisitions for Aspen
Aspen Group's focus is on building a strong affordable accommodations business and re-establishing scale to its business, said chairman, Clive Appleton, at the annual general meeting; and in line with this the company has expanded its tourism portfolio with the acquisition of two new holidays parks. These are BIG4 Koala Shores Holiday Park and BIG4 Tween Waters Holiday Park, both in NSW. More

Tox Free Acquires Medical Waste Business
Hands up all those environmental investors who remember SteriHealth? The medical waste company was delisted in a privatization in 2014 but is now back on the radar as it has been acquired by Tox Free Solutions. In the meantime it changed its name to Daniels Health Australia. The seller is its founder, Dan Daniels. The company's value at the ASX delisting was $34.2 million and its current enterprise value is $186 million, so there has been some growth. More

Divestments and Acquisitions for Ingenia
Ingenia Communities Group has sold the majority of its Deferred Management Fee (DMF) portfolio, as has been planned, and has acquired two more lifestyle parks using the funds from its June placement. The sale involves five of the eight DMF assets and will see Ingenia retain a minority stake and management rights. The sale will release net cash of $41 million to grow Ingenia's lifestyle communities business. More

August Increases Dividend
Unlisted investment company August Investments increased its final dividend for 2015-16 to $6 per share fully franked, bringing the full year dividend to $12 per share. The equivalent 2014-15 full year dividend was $9 per share. Managing Director, Damien Lynch, said three features were noteworthy for the year: continuing high returns, increased interest from investors, and the company's return to community based investments. More

Bigger Cleantech Profits
The Australian listed cleantech sector had an excellent year and reporting season for 2015-16, particularly among the leading stocks where many had outstanding profits and dividend growth. More

Metro Performance Glass Acquires Australian Glass Group
New Zealand's Metro Performance Glass has entered the Australian glass market and added to its environmental glass business with the acquisition of Australian Glass Group (Holdings) Pty Ltd. Australian Glass Group was founded in 2008 and is now the third largest glass processor in Victoria and New South Wales. It has glass processing plants in Melbourne and Sydney and these supply double glazed glass units, custom laminates and toughened safety glass... More

New Strategy for Energy Action
Former market darling Energy Action is aiming to renergize with a new strategic plan that capitalizes on three trends in the energy market - microgrids, big data, and the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) for energy efficient buildings. It has also reorganized its core product offerings and launched an Energy Metrics Platinum service. More

Pacific Energy Offers Hybrid Diesel-Solar Power Stations
Pacific Energy has added to its environmental capabilities by entering an alliance with juwi Renewable Energy, a German world leading renewable energy company. The alliance will focus on off-grid mining projects that integrate solar and battery power with diesel or gas fueled power. More

Double Glazing Boosts Glass Profits
Some positives in the New Zealand double glazed window market helped Metro Performance Glass increase net profit for the year to 31 March to NZ$20.5 million. For the previous corresponding eight months since it listed in July 2014 its net profit was NZ$9.5 million. Sales also rose strongly to NZ$188 million from NZ$115 million over the same periods. More

More Landfill Gas for Energy Developments
It is good to see Energy Developments continuing to grow under its new owner, DUET Group. The latest moves are the acquisition of a landfill gas business in Perth and the go-ahead to build, own and operate a landfill gas facility in Ohio, USA... More

Important Acquisition for Tox Free Solutions
Tox Free Solutions has added significant bulk in NSW with the $70 million acquisition of Worth Corporation Pty Ltd. Tox paid in cash and raised $20 million in an institutional placement and will raise another $4 million through a share purchase plan, both at $2.55 per share. Worth is a leading liquid waste and industrial services business... More

Beacon Lighting Justifies Early Promise
The strong share price performance by Beacon Lighting Group since its IPO two years ago seems justified with the company achieving record sales and a record profit for the December half year. More

Transpacific Now Cleanaway
Transpacific Industries has completed its name change to Cleanaway Waste Management, and reported a half year profit of $23 million to turnaround last year's December half loss of $42 million. Revenue was up 8 per cent to $747 million. Chief executive Vik Bansal said trading conditions are flat so the positive results reflect the early success of initiatives across the company. More

Steady ASX Listing for Contact Energy
When it comes to renewable energy, New Zealand keeps giving with the latest instalment being the dual-listing on the ASX of Contact Energy. The listing was announced in early August last year when Origin Energy said it was selling all of its 389 million shares in Contact Energy, and the listing occured on 24 September with the shares opening at $4.40. The shares have kept their value, trading between $4.95 and $4.18 and mostly recently at around their opening price of $4.40. More

Aspen Sells Aspen Parks
Aspen Group sold its 42 per cent stake in Aspen Parks Property Fund to Discovery Parks, which now owns just over 90 per cent of Aspen Parks. Discovery Parks is wrapping up the takeover offer before it moves to compulsorily acquire the securities it does not have. For Aspen Parks security holders, the successful takeover means they have sold out of an illiquid unlisted fund at a 39 per cent premium to net asset value and have cash in hand. For Aspen Group security holders, the situation is a little different. More

Is Australian Ethical Investment Ltd a Value Investment?
A general principle in value investment circles is that the higher the rise in a company's share price, the lower the value of those shares. But is this necessarily so? We will use the ASX listed shares of Australian Ethical Investments Ltd (Australian Ethical) as an example. Australian Ethical is a funds management company with $1.2 billion under management. The organization is considered by many to be the premier ethical investment group in Australia, with high returns to fund investors and a strong green and social focus for its investments. The company's share price on the ASX is currently $61, a rise of 300 per cent over the last three years. More

While the rise of renewable and distributed energy and energy storage are expected to severely challenge the business models of Australia's largest utilities, this is not the case for New Zealand's renewable energy based utilities such as Meridian Energy and Mighty River Power. Meridian Energy says marine and wave technology are not expected to be cost competitive in NZ for the foreseeable future, while grid scale solar PV is not expected to be cost competitive for 20 years. Nor will the imminent rise of battery storage dramatically change the market as NZ already has significant energy storage capacity through its many hydro lakes. More

Gale Pacific Strategy Working
Gale Pacific's restructuring appears to be working with the company upgrading its earnings guidance for the first half and in response its shares hit a one year high of 30 cents. The new guidance is profit before tax of between $2.75 and $3.25 million with the full year profit before tax expected to be weighted to the second half when growth on the previous corresponding half is also expected. More

Ingenia to Consolidate Securities
Ingenia is looking to make itself more attractive to institutions and other investors through a share consolidation, while its active acquisitions strategy is continuing to add to its medium and long term investment profile. Ingenia is to ask security holders to approve a one for six security consolidation. Ingenia is hoping for a longish list of benefits. More

Can Beacon Lighting Sustain its High Growth Rate?
Beacon Lighting is Australia's leading lighting retailer with 78 company-owned stores and 13 franchised stores around the country. The company is focused upon the middle to upper residential market segments with 90 per cent of its products designed, manufactured under licence and distributed in-house. The company has grown quickly in recent years... More

Can Energy Action Regain its Earnings Growth Profile?
Energy Action appeared to be a true growth stock for the first two years on the ASX but more recently Energy Action has been an under-performer as the market has questioned the company's long term earnings growth prospects. We investigate the company's earnings growth prospects at this time of uncertainty. More

Record Results for Beacon Lighting
After a strong rise, Beacon Lighting's share price has been trending sideways since February, despite achieving record sales and record profits in 2014-15. The company said the results were driven by strong sales growth, solid gross profit growth and expense productivity gains. More

More Growth from Ingenia
Ingenia Communities Group has acquired another holiday and accommodation park, this time on the NSW south coast where it will form the basis for a new Southern NSW cluster of parks. More

Sims Result Well Received
Sims Metal Management saw its share price jump $1.71 or 18 per cent when it announced a solid profit for 2014-5 of $110 million, reversing the prior loss of $89 million. More