Forsyth Barr brokers Peter Young and Suzanne Kinnaird have picked a diverse range of shares they expect to do well this year.
A mixture of mining, energy, entertainment and building sit alongside health-care and residential-care companies.
Mr Young has picked five New Zealand companies he believes are worth following this year while Ms Kinnaird has opted for five Australian shares.
At the top of Mr Young's list is ING Medical.
The company's unique health-care portfolio remained low risk and provided an element of diversification away from a cyclical downturn in traditional commercial property, he said.
ING had strong defensive qualities given its long-weighted average lease term of 9.2 years, almost twice the sector average.
It had confirmed its banking facilities and had gearing levels in line with the sector average.
Ryman Healthcare's share price had suffered from general market sentiment and negativity around house prices and property development.
However, Ryman continued to deliver a quality product enjoying increased demand and it had the scale, in-house expertise and track record to capitalise on that demand.
"The current weakness is an opportunity for investors with a longer time-frame to acquire an interest in a leading New Zealand-focused success story with a solid growth profile."
Sky Network TV had established itself as the only pay television operator in New Zealand.
The economic recessionary environment had slowed its near-term growth prospects but it still exhibited defensive growth attributes, Mr Young said.
Sky's outlook was attractive because of its competitive advantage in bidding for content and its ability to leverage its content to grow earnings through subscriber revenue, advertising, MySky, multiroom connections, high definition content, pay-per-view and the complementary benefits from owning Prime TV.
Fletcher Building had been substantially oversold and the share price already reflected an overly gloomy long-term earnings outlook.
A strong outlook for major infrastructure projects remained a common theme in New Zealand and Australia but would not be enough to offset the broader deterioration in construction activity due to the global financial crisis.
Fletcher Building was still worth buying because of its low price.
Mr Young believed GPG's long-term track record warranted a share price at or above its market-value asset backing.
But in the short to medium-term the shares were likely to trade at a discount due to global market conditions and uncertainty around the valuation of Coats, which was more than half of GPG's investment on Forsyth Barr's valuation.
He favoured GPG based on the current wide market discount, anticipated value realisation at Coats and the attractiveness of GPG's offshore asset base as a hedge against further falls in the New Zealand dollar.
Ms Kinnaird liked BHP Billiton.
BHP was the world's largest diversified resources group, with core activities being the production and distribution of minerals, mineral products and petroleum.
It had major, high quality, low cost, long-life resource assets, as well as a deep pipeline of development projects.
"Combine this with a strong balance sheet, modest net underpinned by strong operating cash flows and we believe BHP offers a growth exposure to eventual better economic times."
CSL had a global franchise in coagulation and immunology markets.
Growth was independent of economic conditions and CSL had no debt.
Its developing vaccine businesses should underline earnings growth of more than 15% a year over the next four years.
Origin Energy was Australia's most vertically integrated energy company.
It had interests in energy retailing, power generation projects, oil and gas production and exploration, coal seam gas and diversification into New Zealand through the ownership of 51.4% of Contact Energy.
"In the current environment, Origin will benefit from its stable earnings and strong cash position. Origin is also undertaking a share buy-back which should help underpin the current share price," Ms Kinnaird said.
About 80% of Sonic Healthcare's revenue came from pathology, 15% from radiology and 5% from other sources.
Its dominant position in the Australian private pathology market provided a significant competitive advantage and a unique base for the company's diversification into radiology.
Transpacific Industries was a leading provider of comprehensive waste and environmental services in Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia-Pacific.
The company's operations included transfer stations, collection operations, waste-to-energy sites, composting facilities and recycling plants.
"Transpacific's share price has fallen dramatically during the current credit crisis, with concerns over debt levels. But the company recently rolled over $700 million in short-term debt for another year and their next maturity isn't until December 2009."
On current company guidance, the shares were trading at about three times after-tax earnings, with a yield of 10% on a 30% pay-out ration.
That was why it was included in the picks for 2009, Ms Kinnaird said.
