The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) fell by 0.86% today to 6,074 points.
There were a number of interesting reports and announcements today:
Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: CGC)
Horticultural giant Costa reported its FY20 half-year result to 28 June 2020.
Costa reported its revenue rose 6.8% to $612.4 million.
Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) went up 13.7% to $93.7 million and the international segment saw underlying EBITDA growth of 98%.
This helped underlying net profit increased 12% to $45.8 million. Statutory profit was $43.4 million.
Net debt was $181.7 million and the board decided to declare a fully franked 4 cents per share dividend.
The ASX 200 share said that its Australian operations has now recovered from weather and drought challenges over the past year. The financial impact of the drought in this reported first half was $15 million at the underlying EBITDA level for tomatoes and berries. Crops recovered to 'full yield' by May. The company said it has excellent forward security across the regions it operates.
There was strong mushroom demand throughout the half and this was helped by the fully improved Monarto facility.
There is positive momentum for the second half with good market conditions and the company expects its core product portfolio to do well against the prior period. The company thinks the rest of its FY20 looks very promising.
Whilst the citrus volume is lower and quality has been impacted, there is strong citrus export and domestic demand and pricing with encouraging expectations for the rest of the season.
Costa was one of the best performers in the ASX 200. The Costa share price went up 11.8%.
Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX: PBH)
Investors were really excited by Pointsbet today. The Pointsbet share price soared by 86.7% after reporting its FY20 result and announcing a deal.
The betting business announced a five-year media partnership with NBC Universal. Pointsbet will become the official sports betting partner of NBC sports in the US.
Management said that this was a transformational partnership and it will provide access to national and regional television and digital assets, with the largest sports audience of any US media company with 184 million viewers.
There is a total committed marketing spend of US$393 million allocated in progressively increasing amounts over the five-year media partnership, as well as incentives payable to NBCUniversal for customer referrals.
Pointsbet announced that this alignment has been reinforced with NBCUniversal buying 4.9% of Pointsbet shares and 66.88 million options maturing in five years (conditional on shareholder approval).
The combined value of the shares and options will offset and reduce the total cash payments under the media spend (subject to terms).
Pointsbet said it has exclusive right to certain pre-game, post-game and in-game promotional enhancements and integrations on certain of NBC Sports' national and regional television and digital platforms.
Harvey Norman Holdings Limited (ASX: HVN)
Harvey Norman is another retail business that has reported impressive growth in FY20, though investors sent the share price down 1.6%.
The company said that its 'offshore company-operated Harvey Norman retail sales revenue' grew by 3.7% to $2.07 billion. Its 'aggregated headline franchisee sales revenue' went up by 8.9% to $6.16 billion.
Total aggregated company-operated and franchisee sales revenue grew by 7.6% to $8.23 billion.
Harvey Norman's EBITDA grew by 37.2% to $944.67 million, reported profit before tax (PBT) went up 15.1% to $661.29 million and underlying PBT rose 26% to $635.6 million.
Reported profit rose 19.4% to $480.54 million and underlying profit grew 30.9% to $462.16 million.
The Harvey Norman board decided to declare a final dividend of 18 cents per share.
Harvey Norman chair Gerry Harvey said: "Pleasingly, customers continued to engage strongly with our brands and importantly, as we are in the lifestyle and home retail space, the customer was appreciative of the shopping experience, spaciousness and easy parking at the physical franchised complexes and stores, whilst embracing the ease of connection to our brands digitally and the important convenience of home delivery and click and collect. The results achieved in 2020, are a testament to the strength of our model."
