UPDATED: Fletcher Building sees profits drop 15% in six months to December as Australasian construction industries flatline. Shares fall.

Results season has hit full swing and while the grades have been mixed, there is a general sense that for most sectors of the economy there are better times ahead.

Some of New Zealand’s biggest companies have made announcements indicating that, although economic conditions aren’t going to get better quickly, they at least aren’t going to get any worse.

Fletcher Building is closing in on its first acquisition since December 2008, having reached agreement to acquire Australian Construction Products (ACP).

ACP provides safety barrier systems and associated roading products in Australia and has revenue in excess of $20 million.

While a full recovery of the building industry is still some time away, Fletcher Building already putting has plans to take advantage of the expected return of volumes.

Speaking at a Trans-Tasman business circle lunch in Auckland today, Fletcher Building chief executive Jonathan Ling said the traditional method of waiting for volumes to increase before building production back up had left businesses such as Fletcher scrambling to satisfy demand in the past.

New Zealand chief executives are much less concerned about the stability of capital markets than their Asia Pacific counterparts, a new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey suggests.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers Global CEO survey canvassed business and public sector leaders around the world for their thoughts on the economy and relevant issues.

And it found that while 66% of Asia Pacific chief executives saw the lack of stability in capital markets as a threat to growth, only 33% of New Zealand chief executives saw it as a threat.