Coroner & Legal
Gunns: Now Maurice Blackburn lawyers join the action …
Maurice Blackburn announce potential shareholder action against Gunns Ltd
It is proposed that a representative or class action proceeding be instituted against Gunns Limited (Gunns) as a result of its alleged failure to disclose material information to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) concerning its performance during the six month period ended on 31 December 2009 (1H2010).
During the course of the 2009 calendar year difficult international trading conditions meant that Gunns exported reduced volumes of woodchips as compared with previous periods. However, on 31 August 2009, as a part of its FY2009 reported results, Gunns stated that it was ‘optimistic that the “bottom of cycle” has been reached’ and that ‘key export markets declined in 3Q09 but stabilised in 4Q09′. Gunns made no further specific announcements regarding any significant deterioration in its wood fibre segment operations prior to reporting its 1H2010 results on 22 February 2010.
The reported market consensus NPAT forecast for 1H2010 was $12.3m. However, on 22 February 2010 Gunns reported 1H2010 NPAT of only $0.4m, down 99% on the 1H2009 result ($33.5m). A significant decline in wood fibre EBIT to $6.9m was the main reason for Gunns’ poor result, down from $57.4m in 1H2009 and $33.7m in 2H2009. Notably, wood fibre EBIT margins reduced substantially in 1H2010 to only 4.9%, down from 22.5% in 1H2009 and 25.3% in 2H2009.
Following the 1H2010 results announcement, Gunns’ share price fell from a close of $0.88 on 19 February 2010 to a close of $0.57 on 26 February 2010 (a decline of $0.31 or 34.9%), as shown in Table 1 On the Maurice Blackburn website, with full details, HERE
Earlier on TT: IMF action HERE