James, AKG vs IQE IQE is the market leader in what is a pretty...

James,

AKG vs IQE

IQE is the market leader in what is a pretty fragmented NZ market, and in a good position to continue to roll up smaller providers to leverage its scale.
You are correct in that NPAT margins are far stronger, although this is based on pro-forma numbers and it will be a year or so before clean full year numbers are released to prove this. Management and Board are still a bit of an unknown, and the lingering presence of AWN worries me a bit as well.

AKG is a smaller player in a much larger market, but at least has a solid track record behind it. I think this recent acquisition has significant potential to improve profit and ROE metrics, given how cheap it was. The AKG register (with PIE and TBF on it) suggests that there is opportunity for a decent re-rate as the AKG story gets out and other more mainstream institutions want to get on board. IQE register is already heavily institutionalised.