South Port New Zealand Limited Analysis

Overview

South Port is the southernmost commercial port in New Zealand, located at Bluff and operating on a year-round, 24 hour basis. It is situated in the highly productive province of Southland which is responsible for producing a sizeable proportion of New Zealand's total exports by value.

The company was established in October 1988 when it acquired $23m of assets from the Southland Harbour Board. Stock exchange listing was achieved in July 1994 after 6.48m shares owned by the Southland Regional Council were offered to the public at $1.10 each. A share buy-back was undertaken in 2000 and the Southland Regional Council now owns 66.48% of the shares in the company.

South Port is governed by a board of six independent directors. It is the only Southland-based company listed on NZX. It is also one of the major employers in the region, employing over 80 full time equivalent staff.

From its base on the 40 hectare (100 acre) man-made Island Harbour, South Port is proud to provide a full range of marine services, cargo and container shipping, and on-site warehousing for domestic and international customers. The port is ideally situated to service Southland's significant export and import industries including aluminium, timber, fisheries, dairy, meat, wood chips, stock food, cement, alumina, fertiliser and petroleum products. The port handles over 2.5 million tonnes of import and export cargo in a normal trading year.

SPN has been granted Listing with a 'Non-Standard' ("NS") designation. This designation was granted because under the Port Companies Act 1988, changes to SPN's Constitution must be approved by the Minister of Transport. For further information, please see the Port Companies Act 1988 which is publicly available at www.legislation.govt.nz.

Performance

The following information was extracted from South Port New Zealand Limited's Interim report, released 10 March 2026:

South Port delivered a record after-tax profit of $8.45m for the first six months of FY26 (1H25 $5.76M).

Port activity benefited from stronger economic activity within the region, higher imports of agricultural inputs to support the farming sector and a recovery of smelter-related volumes.

Customers are leveraging the deeper draft conditions to achieve significant productivity gains through more efficient vessel movements and increased payloads, reducing overall port-call costs.

he result reflected stronger economic performance in the region and was underpinned by increased bulk cargo volumes, stronger container activity and improved performance at Tiwai Wharf, alongside cost control and lower finance costs.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• Record interim cargo volumes, up 17.8% to 1.99 million tonnes
• Operating revenue increased 17.6% to $34.75 million, reflecting volume growth and improved revenue mix
• EBITDA increased 23.4% to $15.29 million, with EBITDA margin improving to 44%, returning to levels consistent with prior peak periods
• Reported NPAT increased 46.8% to $8.45 million, supported by higher EBITDA and lower finance costs
• Interim dividend of 8.5 cents per share declared
• Balance sheet strengthened, with net debt reduced to $29 million and net debt to EBITDA of 1.1x
• Continued progress on targeted, high-return strategic investments