NZ's Fletcher Building sees higher year EBIT

Yahoo! Australia & NZ Finance

Tuesday 9 November 12:24 PM

NZ's Fletcher Building sees higher year EBIT

WELLINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - New Zealand building supplies and construction firm, Fletcher Building Ltd. FBU.NZ, on Tuesday forecast core earnings before interest and tax of between NZ$475 million ($328 million) and NZ$500 million for the current fiscal year.

Fletcher Building, which has benefited from building booms in New Zealand and Australia on the back of strong economic growth and historically low interest rates, said in August that it expected to match last year's record profit result in 2005.

"After four months of trading, the company is comfortably ahead of last year -- to the extent that, even after assuming there will be a second half slowing, directors now expect the full year earnings before interest and taxation to be in the range of NZ$475 million to NZ$500 million compared to NZ$460 million last year," Chairman Roderick Deane said in speech notes released for the company's annual meeting.

The company's shares have been trading at record levels since balance date, and have risen by a third since the end of December, despite central bank interest rate hikes in both Australia and New Zealand.

That beat a 17-percent gain for the benchmark NZSX-50 index .NZ50, but lagged Australian rivals such as CSR's CSR.AX 42-percent gain and Boral's BLD.AX 31-percent rise.

Shares in Fletcher Building, a top-10 listed stock with a 6-percent weighting on the NZSX-50 index, last traded up four cents at NZ$5.70.

($1=NZ$1.45)

Later Story:	UPDATE 1-NZ's Fletcher Building sees higher yr earnings (Reuters)
Earlier Story:	NZ share market dips, Warehouse pummelled (Reuters)