SEK - Seeka

[alkebab]

Hey Basil, I been accumulating these for last few weeks. The numbers look not too bad. Dividend 30c includes January div, YLD about 6.7%,  PE 6.63,  NTA 644 and EPS 67.58 looking at Morningside figures. I got a funny feeling these should be over $5 per share. Someone mentioned they did have a bit of dept though.   

Hi seaweed

I've been looking at SEK as well, have been accumulating since June.

Latest profit guidance was 39-43 million, but with recent updates from Zespri, I'm expecting this to be higher. There should be another profit guidance coming up before the end of the year.

They have paid 15c this year with another 10c going ex-div in mid December. But based on their record last year I'm expecting another div some time in April. They have changed their div payout policy to 50-75% of NPAT last year. A total 40c payout is possible with the current guidance, hell, even 50c isn't out of the question. Fully imputed now too.

They have paid down more debt over the past year and is well positioned to pay off more, or at least have current debt refinanced at lower rates. More news to come in the coming months with the FY25 full year results out end of Feb.

[Otago K]

Hi seaweed

I've been looking at SEK as well, have been accumulating since June.

Latest profit guidance was 39-43 million, but with recent updates from Zespri, I'm expecting this to be higher. There should be another profit guidance coming up before the end of the year.

They have paid 15c this year with another 10c going ex-div in mid December. But based on their record last year I'm expecting another div some time in April. They have changed their div payout policy to 50-75% of NPAT last year. A total 40c payout is possible with the current guidance, hell, even 50c isn't out of the question. Fully imputed now too.

They have paid down more debt over the past year and is well positioned to pay off more, or at least have current debt refinanced at lower rates. More news to come in the coming months with the FY25 full year results out end of Feb.

essentially agree with the outlook in the here and now, that said not currently an investor. unsure if a fundamental BUY for me bearing in mind the cyclical nature and that this is the outperforming season weather-wise. Suspect you've been on to it long enough that it will not likely be a regretful investment for yourself.

[Basil]

Hey Basil, I been accumulating these for last few weeks. The numbers look not too bad. Dividend 30c includes January div, YLD about 6.7%,  PE 6.63,  NTA 644 and EPS 67.58 looking at Morningside figures. I got a funny feeling these should be over $5 per share. Someone mentioned they did have a bit of dept though.   

Agri stocks are notoriously cyclical.
Good years are often followed by bad.
Retirees need to consider the reliability of dividends not just the yield in the current year. On my standard 5 year review period SEK failed to pay a dividend at all in 2022 or 2023. Looking at the 10 year share price history this is not a growth stock. On the other hand TA looks good and they're in a nice uptrend so could be a good stock to trade.

I made an exception with Tower and their 5 year track record of dividends because I believe the risk management changes in their business model warranted making an exception. Only time will tell if that was an inspired decision or not.

I'm not in a risk on enough frame of mind to make a dividend track record exception for any agri stock

Best wishes to holders, SEK is not for me.

[alkebab]

essentially agree with the outlook in the here and now, that said not currently an investor. unsure if a fundamental BUY for me bearing in mind the cyclical nature and that this is the outperforming season weather-wise. Suspect you've been on to it long enough that it will not likely be a regretful investment for yourself.

Yea agreed about the cyclical nature. Toddy on the other channel has posted good insights hence I decided to go in, together with good tailwinds at the moment. He said what seemed like a historical year may actually just be the norm, but time will tell. They went through a difficult time in 2022-23 and has totally revamped the system, so it sounds a bit like Tower.

Forecast from Zespri for the next season is good as well, so things should be ok in the next year.

Also helps to see Seeka branded avocados and kiwifruit available at Costco, lol.

[Fiordland Moose]

FY24 and FY25 are standout years and who knows FY26 could be too. I have a shareholding in seeka but one thing that has kept the shareholding relatively modest is the extraordinary variability in historical earnings. I sought to average last 5 and 10 year earnings, normalising the accounts for unusual / one off charges (ie the charge in removing depreciation on buildings in FY24, getting it back in FY20, $7.7m PSA claim in FY21, $8.4m gain on sale in FY20, etc etc) - pretty messy, hard to get a sense of what true maintainable earnings are. The PE and potential dividend yield on this basis quite a bit less flattering than if you just look at the last two years.

That said I think things will improve relative to the pre FY22 years, with all the automation going in. Ultimately I view this as a play on kiwifruit volumes being exported from NZ, and the story is positive, but I think one has to be honest that there will be a lot of variability in future years and there will be a lot of down years compared to this years circa $29m npat.

I note the reduction in debt, improvement in automation in recent years, with a lot of new automation being put in place right now and early next year as being fundamentally positive to the financial case, but a lot of the pistons right now are all firing which surely won't always/usually be the case going forward.

Just IMO I'm certainly no expert on the industry or business by any means. I read what toddy has to say with great interest and the most recent zespri update was quite positive I thought.

[lorraina]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/post-harvest-revolution-3-tech-mega-trends-shaping-nz-horticulture-in-2026-chris-bray/6MAKZKEF3BFSHD2PM744RB6HWM/
Post-harvest revolution: 3 tech mega-trends shaping NZ horticulture in 2026 – Chris Bray
Opinion by
Chris Bray
The Country·
6 Dec, 2025 05:00 AM
6 mins to read
Chris Bray is a business development manager MAF NZ Ltd
Save

Share
A robotic claw places golden kiwifruit into trays. Globally, the agricultural robot market is expected to grow at 20% annually. Photo / Mark McKeown
A robotic claw places golden kiwifruit into trays. Globally, the agricultural robot market is expected to grow at 20% annually. Photo / Mark McKeown

THE FACTS

Zespri will deliver a record 215 million trays of kiwifruit to overseas markets.
Automation in packhouses is essential to offset rising wages and worker shortages during peak seasons.
New Zealand's post-harvest workforce must upskill for artificial intelligence, robotics, and data analytics integration.
The kiwifruit industry is setting the pace for New Zealand horticulture.

This year's supply season will see Zespri deliver a record crop (215 million trays) of New Zealand-grown fruit to overseas markets.

Maf Roda NZ, which engineers automation solutions, added high-tech equipment to 12 kiwifruit packhouses across New Zealand for the 2025 season.

Advertisement

Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement

Advertise with NZME.

The country's food and fibre sector accounts for over 80% of goods exports, and the forecast export revenue growth of horticulture at 19% (year to June 30, 2025, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries' Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries) is the fastest of any agricultural sector.

Ongoing growth depends on the agritech that we create or bring into our market.

Globally, the agricultural robot market is expected to grow at 20% annually.

The post-harvest period is critical to efficiently and attractively presenting quality New Zealand produce to the world through technology, skills and our premium brand.

Advertisement

Advertise with NZME.
Over the last five years, in a business development role, I've watched tech innovation revolutionise post-harvest solutions.

The challenge is to invest in an era of precision agriculture driven by machines but with human oversight and innovation.

Heading into 2026, post-harvest is being shaped by three mega-trends that New Zealand must lead.

Subscribe to The Country edm
1: Automation and artificial intelligence
Robotics and automation are transforming horticultural industries around the world.

I recently walked into a citrus packhouse in Spain and was shocked by the people-count there.

Automation is no longer optional in New Zealand.

It helps offset rising wages and the difficulty in finding workers, particularly during the peak kiwifruit season.

Some packhouses are offering wages up to $50 an hour, but still can't find enough workers.

The physical demands of stacking heavy boxes and working long hours are deterring young people from taking these jobs.

Automation offers a reliable, 24/7 solution without the health and safety concerns associated with manual labour.

New Zealand is at the forefront of post-harvest automation.

Mount Pack & Cool (MPac) in Tauranga has the most highly automated kiwifruit processing plant in the world.

Its post-harvest packhouse attracts international visitors, from processors to growers, with widespread industry interest in the facility's productivity, cost-efficiency and sustainability.

MPac's business has gone from six million trays in 2018 to packing 30+ million trays in the latest season.

Today, kiwifruit is New Zealand's most valuable crop export.

Robotic graders, optical sorters and artificial intelligence-driven quality systems will become the norm in packhouses to maintain throughput and consistency.

The post-harvest process is being streamlined to ensure consistently high-quality products reach global consumers.

Camera and processing power are advancing and will eventually guarantee the phyto-sanitary status of fruit, so it is bug-free when heading to markets.

For apple post-harvest processing initially, we are using artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to provide the most accurate internal and external analysis – including colour, shape, diameter and weight – increasing the quality of the end product.

The camera grading system incorporates AI machine model learning.

The grading technology enables real-time quality analysis and adaptive sorting, reducing human error, helping operators manage complex sorting tasks more efficiently and accelerating throughput.

AI helps the system recognise fruit defects and adapt to changing environmental conditions, delivering more precise results.

Blockchain is part of the future picture – driving security, transparency, traceability and trust into the supply chain, from orchard to consumer.

2: Smarter workforce
Post-harvest's future pairs human skill with machine precision for smarter collaboration. Photo / Warren Buckland
Post-harvest's future pairs human skill with machine precision for smarter collaboration. Photo / Warren Buckland

Automation is not about replacing people; it's about creating smarter systems, skilled technical roles and more fulfilling jobs.

The future of post-harvest plays humans and machines to their respective strengths and finds new ways for them to collaborate.

To support jobs, innovation and productivity, New Zealand's post-harvest workforce must upskill for the future of AI, robotics, IoT and data analytics.

An October BCG report on agritech highlighted the need for secondary school science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) education and accelerating digital agritech training pathways and micro credentials.

An astute observation was the high value placed on cross-disciplinary talent, skilled in both tech and agriculture, that is often lured from New Zealand – and that younger, tech-oriented workers can be attracted by the integration of the internet of things (IoT), AI, robotics and remote sensing.

We can expect future fruit supply chains to adapt in real time to manage fruit size, defects, seasonal peaks and more.

Packhouses will hum with AI-powered robotic systems, predictive analytics dashboards, real-time data streams and digital-first workers managing automation and dashboards onsite or remotely – doing everything from troubleshooting IoT-connected machinery to adjusting AI-driven sorting algorithms.

The Maf Roda Group devotes an average of 3% of its annual turnover to technological innovation.

New Zealand needs to inspire the next generation of innovators into our key sectors and create a tech-advanced workforce – we can tap transferable skills focused on attractive career pathways for young people, and why not draw from gaming communities who can navigate complex interfaces – think spatial awareness, hand-eye co-ordination, adapting on the fly, system troubleshooting and simulation-first robotics.

3: Sustainable horticulture
With climate change, sorting machines are becoming even more essential for ensuring fruit quality during unpredictable weather events.

Our organisation's AI-powered sorting systems are designed to adapt to changing conditions, helping producers sort fruit based on size, defects and moisture content.

This technology allows producers to maximise their yield, despite environmental stresses.

As countries tackle major environmental threats, emissions and waste, regulation, climate-focused investment and consumer preferences are driving a clean imperative through horticulture.

Post-harvest horticulture is getting smarter about managing its emissions, something that a next-generation workforce values.

The carbon footprint includes packaging and waste-to-landfill, electricity use, transport fuel and refrigerants.

The solutions range from AI-driven shelf-life forecasting and installing solar power through to electric transport, biodegradable packaging and upgrading coolstore systems.

Let's meet the post-harvest revolution head-on – New Zealand's prosperity depends on our horticulture industry embracing its tech, creativity, talent and brand opportunities.


Discover more

[BlackPeter]

FY24 and FY25 are standout years and who knows FY26 could be too. I have a shareholding in seeka but one thing that has kept the shareholding relatively modest is the extraordinary variability in historical earnings. I sought to average last 5 and 10 year earnings, normalising the accounts for unusual / one off charges (ie the charge in removing depreciation on buildings in FY24, getting it back in FY20, $7.7m PSA claim in FY21, $8.4m gain on sale in FY20, etc etc) - pretty messy, hard to get a sense of what true maintainable earnings are. The PE and potential dividend yield on this basis quite a bit less flattering than if you just look at the last two years.

That said I think things will improve relative to the pre FY22 years, with all the automation going in. Ultimately I view this as a play on kiwifruit volumes being exported from NZ, and the story is positive, but I think one has to be honest that there will be a lot of variability in future years and there will be a lot of down years compared to this years circa $29m npat.

I note the reduction in debt, improvement in automation in recent years, with a lot of new automation being put in place right now and early next year as being fundamentally positive to the financial case, but a lot of the pistons right now are all firing which surely won't always/usually be the case going forward.

Just IMO I'm certainly no expert on the industry or business by any means. I read what toddy has to say with great interest and the most recent zespri update was quite positive I thought.

No doubt, FY24 and FY25 have been better than some of the years before, but not quite sure I would call them "Standout". If you just look at EPS, there have been better years before. But no doubt - agriculture is cyclical, and what goes up will come down again.

10 years backward PE is 13, with a backwards EPS CAGR (10yrs) of 12.5. Does not look too expensive to me.
10 years forward CAGR (OK-3 years forward, but a 10 year timeframe) is 8.1 and a forward CAGR of 8.2. Again - looks not too dear.

So, yes, I expect at some stage another bottom, but not sure, I expect it so soon. Agree as well with lloraina, that automation will change the base level upwards.

Anyway, holding as part of my wartime portfolio (everybody needs something to eat). Obviously - some risks (as in any industry) will always hang around.

[Left Field]

Wow! Tasty upgrade....naaice.

https://api.nzx.com/public/announcement/464591/attachment/458990/464591-458990.pdf

Seeka Limited (NZX:SEK) advises it has upgraded its current year earnings guidance at a profit before
tax level from between $39.0m and $43.0m to between $44.0m and $48.0m.

[seaweed]

Wow! Tasty upgrade....naaice.

https://api.nzx.com/public/announcement/464591/attachment/458990/464591-458990.pdf

Seeka Limited (NZX:SEK) advises it has upgraded its current year earnings guidance at a profit before
tax level from between $39.0m and $43.0m to between $44.0m and $48.0m.

Damn it. Was hoping that up grade would come out on Thursday 18/12/25 on ex div day like last time on ex div day upgrade on 17/9/25. I was wanting to top up another 10,000 before ex div day. Just been a bit greedy here and should be satisfied with my holding. Wonder if it will ever get to $5    PS did anyone notice the SP going up 2 hours before the announcement.

[alkebab]

Damn it. Was hoping that up grade would come out on Thursday 18/12/25 on ex div day like last time on ex div day upgrade on 17/9/25. I was wanting to top up another 10,000 before ex div day. Just been a bit greedy here and should be satisfied with my holding. Wonder if it will ever get to $5    PS did anyone notice the SP going up 2 hours before the announcement.

They made an announcement last year on Dec 13, so I was suspecting the same this time this year. Was only off by a day lol. So far this year, the company has followed a similar pattern when it comes to company announcements and figures, etc, so I was suspecting 43-47 million.

There might be another guidance update in January based on this year's pattern.

There were some movement on Friday with a 10000 sell at 4.4x getting bought in one go, plus another 10000+ shares at 4.5x getting pulled late Friday.

[lorraina]

Damn it. Was hoping that up grade would come out on Thursday 18/12/25 on ex div day like last time on ex div day upgrade on 17/9/25. I was wanting to top up another 10,000 before ex div day. Just been a bit greedy here and should be satisfied with my holding. Wonder if it will ever get to $5    PS did anyone notice the SP going up 2 hours before the announcement.

Yes I am sure they will get to $5 on their way to exceeding their NTA of $6.44.

[winner (n)]

Book value $6.86

Traded above Book Vakue in the past so no reason why it shouldn't do so again

[seaweed]

Book value $6.86

Traded above Book Vakue in the past so no reason why it shouldn't do so again

Yes looking good. 3 divs over 6 months. Ex div on Thursday and then ex div again 12 weeks later after Christmas

[seaweed]

Very quiet around here lately. Bought more and didn't quite get to my target, but no worries tomorrow is another day and of course ex div.    

[seaweed]

Correct me if I am wrong. SEK divs for this year were March 5c, Sept 15c and Dec 10c. From my calculations = 30c with yld of 6.46%. Am trying to figure out why Morningstar updated numbers are divs 25c at 5.38% yld. ?? Have reached my target on 19th Dec