The reason it got hit so badly was the impact that the change...

The reason it got hit so badly was the impact that the change will have on Challenger's future earnings potential. The recent changes to Aged Care legislation which came into force on 1 July this year means that people moving into aged care need to pay significantly higher fees than previously. The aged care annuity provided by challenger was one of the few products that advisers could use to help reduce the impact of these changes.
I would be interested to see of that $279 million how much has come since the 1 July changes came into force. In hindsight it is no surprise that government has shut this product down as it was 'relatively' generous in terms of its features compared to a normal annuity. Cant save I have ever seen this changes made retrospectively to all money invested prior to an announcement date - and if I am a betting man there will be some litigation funders lining up to have crack at challenger.

The other impact was that I am guessing came in to play a lot of people assumed that annuities would come into favour from 1 Jan with the changes to allocated pensions - clearly there is now real regulatory risk around this part of their business as well.

Surprised we haven't heard from the Coalition Of Common Sense (COCS) senators - although with Lambie and Muir both of which couldn't count past 10 they may not understand the implication.

Clowns are reigning in Canberra and Challenger.