A2 shares plunge over FDA formula deferral

A2 Milk shares had a rough day and sank 11% earlier this morning on the news it wouldn’t be sending infant formula to the lucrative US market in the near future.

Wednesday, August 10th 2022, 5:58PM

by BusinessDesk

The milk company told the NZX that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is deferring further consideration of the company’s request for enforcement discretion to import infant milk formula products into the US.

The shares dropped 11% to $5.01 when New Zealand’s market opened but made up for a bit of lost ground throughout the day, ending it down 7.5% to $5.21.

The S&P/NZX 50 index was flat today at 11,752.09. Turnover on the main board was a quiet $106.6m.

Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners, said A2’s shares had experienced “a bit of cold water” over the prospect of the FDA approvals.

Last week, A2’s shares jumped on an Australian news report that approval might be imminent and even though A2 was swift to dampen expectations, the shares were still sitting at $5.64 on Friday.

He said A2’s share price had shot up last week on the back of speculation that the company was getting access to the US market and the share price was now trickling back to where it had been sitting before the speculation started.

“So all that has really happened is it’s giving back a fair whack of that gain that it achieved the other day,” he said.

Synlait Milk also fell by 1.5% to $3.26 by the end of the day.

Contact Energy slipped slightly down 0.13% to $7.66 after it announced that it had accepted the resignation of big four accounting organisation KPMG which has been the external auditor of the company since 2005.

The electricity generator told the NZX that the decision to change the auditor “in no way reflects on the performance of KPMG” but that the firm considered it is good governance practice for a company to change auditor from time to time.

Professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY) has been appointed as the group’s new external auditor – on the same day for Contact Energy’s financial year commencing July 1 2022.

Other energy stocks across the board had a mixed day – Manawa Energy was up 0.66% to $6.10, Meridian Energy rose 0.19% to $5.25 and Genesis Energy fell 1.9% to $2.92. Mercury also jumped 2.26% to $6.55.

Telecommunications company Spark declined 0.10% to $5.115.

Spark revealed it has had to refund nearly 113,000 customers more than $15m after they were charged for a wire maintenance service they didn’t need or couldn't use or benefit from.

The Commerce Commission had begun investigating the phone company in 2020 after a customer complaint.

Spark said it had provided the regulator with enforceable undertakings that committed it to refund all affected customers and had already refunded about $15m – with a remaining $348,757.92 still to be refunded to 4,921 customers.

Rival telco Chorus also fell 0.38% to $7.85 by the end of the day.

Other falls on the index today were Vulcan Steel which dropped 2.8% to $9.72, and Chatham Rock Phosphate sank 8.6% to 32 cents.

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels fell 4.4% to $2.19 after it released its half-year earnings today.

The firm told the market that while the covid-19 pandemic continues to weigh on its accommodation business, it expects to deliver an annual profit on the strength of its property development arm.

CDL Investments, a subsidiary of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MCK), also released its half-year earnings today and the company’s shares fell 1.2% to 84 cents by early evening.

CDL chair Colin Sim said the firm was still determined to match 2021’s full-year revenue even though the last six months had seen a “dramatic” change in the trading environment.

The company’s revenue for the six months ended June was $47.8m, a fall from $61.3m in 2021.

Stocks that had a good day today included Move Logistics which rose 6.7% to $1.27, My Food Bag which lifted 5.1% to 82 cents and market regulator NZX was also up 3.3% to $1.25.

On the currency front, the NZ dollar was trading at 62.88 US cents at 5pm, up from 62.76 on Tuesday.

Tags: Market Close