I agree with this concern. One questioner at the AGM was fobbed...

I agree with this concern. One questioner at the AGM was fobbed off when he asked for broad earnings guidance. The answer included some assurance of (unsurprising) capex expectations; that the questioner should consult one or other broker-analyst who has made earnings forecasts, and the (unconvincing) assertion that other companies don't give earnings guidance , so why should NZM? That last part of the answer was not good enough because we know that other companies give guidance all the time. Nonetheless, the CEO did not give any sense that earnings were tracking badly. And he did NOT say that brokers' estimates/earnings expectations already out there in the market were wide of the mark. Many of us of course do not get access to these estimates. The company would surely have a duty to correct what was out there in the market if it thought those estimates were way out of line. [I will aim get to next years AGM if I am still holding the stock and will make this point]. I can only think of one other reason for reticence about guidance : the NZM board is frightened that it may get things wrong and not be able to update the market in a timely manner, thereby risking shareholder backlash. So they avoid giving guidance.