Forsyth Barr broker Suzanne Kinnaird said yesterday she expected strong revenue growth in SkyCity's Auckland property, supported by the recent lift in gaming products and a favourable macro backdrop.
Elsewhere, she expected improving margins at Adelaide, turnaround stories at its Hamilton and Queenstown casinos and strong gains in international business turnover.
Darwin was likely to be the only laggard.
A key focus on SkyCity's May investor day was its two key growth prospects - Auckland and Adelaide - and the funding and capital expenditure profile.
``While we expect limited new detail this result, progress and timing will be a key area of focus for investors in the medium-term, coupled with the outlook commentary for the two cities.''
Forsyth Barr was forecasting total revenue to rise 8% for the financial year to $990.6 million and the operating profit to rise nearly 12% to $341.1 million. The reported profit was forecast to rise 22% to $156.7 million.
Ms Kinnaird was not so positive about the upcoming reporting season as a whole, forecasting low single digit earnings per share (EPS) growth at both the aggregate and median level.
``EPS growth expectations exceed our current market growth. Should outlook comment surprise on the down side, the price reaction may be swift.''
EPS growth was supported in the transport and food, beverages and agriculture sectors. Estimated growth for the utilities and retail sectors was mixed, with building flat to negative.
The quarterly reporting season had 49 companies reporting, dominated by companies releasing their 2016 full-year results.
Of the 49 companies reporting, despite modest expectations for market growth, 20 companies were expected to deliver normalised EPS growth in excess of 10%, Ms Kinnaird said.
Of the 20 companies, five were rated outperform - Briscoe Group, Heartland Bank, Michael Hill International, PGG Wrightson, which reports today, and Tourism Holdings.
