Queensland stocks winners and losers in 2020

It was a year of winners and losers for Queensland’s biggest publicly listed companies with COVID-19 the backdrop to their various fortunes.

SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS

It was a year of winners and losers for Queensland’s biggest publicly listed companies with COVID-19 the backdrop to their various fortunes.

Those exposed to the devastated tourist sector suffered big losses while those servicing the work-from-home (WFM) economy saw big leaps in value.

Not surprisingly some of our big tourist exposed operators saw their market values plummet as global travel was cancelled.

Flight Centre had its market cap slashed 60 per cent to $3.16bn in 2020 while Star Entertainment, which is developing the Queen’s Wharf integrated resort in Brisbane, experienced a 20 per cent decline in value to $3.5bn.

Dominos Pizza delivery driver Caitlin Macumber has been busy this year. Pic: Adam Head

Our deteriorating relations with China saw rail operator Aurizon’s value slump 25 per cent to $7.25bn while the market cap of our biggest company Suncorp fell 25 per cent to $12.47bn amid fears Australia’s economic growth would be stymied by the pandemic. 

Domino’s Pizza sold a lot more home-delivered pizza during the pandemic helping its value rise an incredible 66 per cent to $7.5bn.

One of the biggest winners of the year was data centre operator NEXTDC whose value skyrocketed 86 per cent to $5.57bn as people took to teleconferencing as well as watching big doses of Netflix. Megaport, which connects companies to the Cloud, rose 33 per cent to $2.21bn.

Hunter Green Institutional Broking director Charlie Green says companies exposed to the growing digital economy had emerged winners.

“People are hunkering down at home so anything related to digital - whether that is streaming Netflix or ordering a pizza online will do well,” says Green.“The changes in our digital take up have been accelerated due to COVID-19.”

OFFICE WORKS

The death of the office tower due to COVID-19 has been greatly exaggerated with tenants now looking at extra space to satisfy social distancing requirements, according to the departing boss of Cromwell Property Group Paul Weightman.

Weightman (illustrated), 59, who resigned this week as head of the $2.3 billion Brisbane property group after a 22-year career, says people still needed human contact and face-to-face communication, something that could not be done from a home office.

“People still need to collaborate and they need to be mentored,” Weightman says. “We talk to tenants and the people whoare suffering the most are not the big bosses with their fancy home offices but the junior staff who have been working outof small flats.”

He says tenants were now looking at extra office space as COVID-19 stipulated more social distancing in work spaces and commonareas.

“We had got down to a ratio of 1 person per 10 sq metres but is likely to increase to 1 person in 16 sq m,” Weightman.says “Tenants will be looking at more space.”

He says the Australian economy was likely to bounce back strongly after the pandemic with people willing to spend more to enjoy life.

Paul Weightman, departing CEO of Cromwell Property Group.

“It’s a bit like the 1920s when people wanted to embrace life after the Spanish flu,” he said. “People will want to spendmore on cars and houses.”

Weightman says he is proud of his achievements at Cromwell, which grew from a single investment in a small office buildingin Brisbane’s Coronation Drive in 1998 to a global portfolio of assets now worth $12 billion.

His resignation came amid board differences over the direction of the company as it came under intense pressure from dissidentshareholder ARA Asset Management.

“We had no idea the company was going to get this big,” he says, adding one of the first investors in the companywas the late stockbroker Paul “Porky” Morgan.

“We have had our challenges along the way. When we first started, we were still recovering from the 90s recession. Then we had the Asian financial crisis, the tech crash and this year COVID. We didn’t take crazy risks and we built the company brickby brick.”

He would remain in the property sector but would take a break to hone his long-neglected golf skills beforelooking at new business ventures.

“I have been a member of Royal Queensland since 1984 but have only played five times,” he tells your diarist. “I would like to play more but first I have to find my clubs.”