Elders goes overboard after ASX query
by License, a.f.r.com
February 9, 2023 12:28 AM
Agribusiness group Elders has gone all out to improve its disclosure to investors a day after receiving a “speeding ticket” from the ASX.The company lodged an eight-page slide presentation with the ASX on Thursday morning before another “virtual” meeting between chief executive Mark Allison and some investors, this time organised by stockbroking house Goldman Sachs.Elders CEO Mark Allison. It followed a query from the ASX a day earlier to Elders over a 7 per cent drop in the group’s share price and whether there was any new information that needed to be disclosed to the market.Elders said in response to the ASX query on Wednesday that it had some briefings with institutional investors on Tuesday but no price sensitive information was disclosed. Those briefings, arranged by stockbrokers CLSA and Taylor Collison, were also held using a “virtual” format online. Mr Allison told The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column that the presentation contained information that was already known to the market.The briefings centred on livestock prices, the impact of unseasonably wet conditions, softer residential real estate sales activity, the winter cropping outlook and succession planning at Elders.Elders shares made a partial recovery on Thursday to close 1.3 per cent higher at $8.95.But the stock is still more than 30 per cent down on the levels it was trading at in mid-November, just before the company made the announcement that Mr Allison would the company later this year. It was sitting at $13.25, but lost $475 million in sharemarket value on November 14 when the departure was revealed.Elders was founded in 1839. It almost collapsed during the global financial crisis, when it buckled under $1.4 billion of debt in 2008.
This followed an ill-fated expansion under previous management into areas including forestry, telecommunications, aquaculture, banking, insurance and automotive components.A major asset sale program under previous boss Malcolm Jackman shrank it back into a pure-play agricultural company. Elders was then steadily rebuilt under Mr Allison, who took the top job in unusual circumstances in 2014 when he shifted from Elders chairman to chief executive.He continually reinforced the importance of being disciplined with returns on investment and stuck rigidly to an “eight-point plan” to guide the company.
The eight-point plan was again one of the slideshow topics in the Elders’ presentation at Goldman Sachs on Thursday, where acting chief financial officer Paul Rossiter also answered questions.
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