Of Bulls & Bears

The head of new aviation franchise Qantas New Zealand (formerly known as Ansett New Zealand), Kevin Doddrell, was guest speaker at a recent breakfast meeting of the Auckland branch of the Institute of Directors. Mr Doddrell spoke about the change of brand and noted customers were stubborn creatures - many were still dialling 0800 ANSETT to book their flights many months after the name change. Questioners were keen to persuade him to reveal some clues about how the airline was going to tackle arch competitor Air New Zealand. He declined to reveal any sensitive information, citing the potential presence of journalists - and the undoubted presence of Air New Zealand board member Elizabeth Coutts at the top table. At one of the lesser tables, two spaces had been booked by Air New Zealand executives. However, their seats remained empty throughout the morning. "Restructuring victims?' asked one wag.

Rural investors catch up with canny

Often the sharemarket is wise well after the event. Take the much maligned rural sector, for example. On Tuesday this week, the following rural services companies were among the top-10 risers: Wrightson (10%), Reid Farmers (5.4%) and Williams & Kettle (3.3%). All three provide goods and services to the farming and horticultural markets, which are going through their first boom for some time. Anecdotal evidence from the provinces indicates good growing conditions and a low dollar are delivering superb profits to many happy farmers and growers. Some of this money is going toward fertiliser, seeds and new equipment. This is nice but the real winners are the far-sighted investors who bought shares in rural service companies well before the going got so good. Congratulations to those who bought Wrightson last year at 35c, Reid Farmers at 62c and Williams & Kettle at $1.96 - you are now sitting on capital gains of 123%, 58% and 58%, respectively.

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