Henry’s stake takes hit after Lim furore
DGL founder sees holding battered as NZ market dives
Simon Henry’s personal holding in DGL Group has plummeted nearly $140 million in five days as his company and the New Zealand sharemarket took another dive.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index began falling after its counterpart ASX 200 Index opened weak. The NZX closed at a near two-year low of 11,381.7, down 227.67 points after. It was the biggest single day fall in two months.
There were 116 decliners and 28 gainers on volume of 54.26 million share transactions worth $152.92m.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index had fallen 1.36 per cent to 7107.3 points at 5.40pm NZ time, after US indices were weak again over the weekend.
Jeremy Sullivan, investment advisor with Hamilton Hindin Greene, said the local market has a similar feel to April/May in 2020 (after Covid first struck) but it is a slower burn.
“Pessimism is still elevated with the same themes of inflation, rising interest rates and the Ukraine war. But the markets can’t keep going down forever.” Transtasman chemicals business
DGL Group fell 57c to $3.28, after sitting at $4.15 last Wednesday when Henry’s comments about My Food Bag and Nadia Lim became public.
Henry has a 57 per cent stake with 150.9m shares in DGL and in the last three trading days the worth of his shareholding has fallen from around $664m to $528m. Since listing in May last year DGL’s share price reached a high of $4.50 last month.
The NZ dollar fell to its second lowest level against the American greenback since 2008 after Fonterra reduced its farmgate milk price forecast from $9.60 to $9.30 per kilogram of milk solids. The NZ dollar was trading down one per cent at US63.41 (at 5.45 pm NZ time).
Rural services firm PGG Wrightson rose 20c to $4.286 and is heading towards its all-time high of $4.81 set on August 27, 2008.
Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund was down 4c to $2.80, and a2 Milk fell 26c to a new low of $4.41.
Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare declined 45c to $21.50; Auckland International Airport fell 29c to $7.36; Mainfreight shed $3.29 to $77; Contact Energy was down 26c to $7.59; and Air New Zealand decreased 3c to 76.5c.
Freightways fell 56c to $11.625 after Express Package volumes were down two per cent because of the Omicron wave and staff shortages.
SkyCity Entertainment declined 8c to $2.81; Tourism Holdings was down 6c to $2.75; Vista Group fell 10c to $1.76; Move Logistics shed 8c to $1.20; and Pacific Edge decreased 4c to 84c.
Retailers KMD Brands was down 4c to $1.28; Michael Hill International also declined 4c to $1.19; and Briscoe Group was up 12c to $5.90. Comvita decreased 10c to $3.20. Oceania Healthcare gained 2c to 99c after announcing it is buying Remuera Rise and Bream Bay retirement villages.
Fellow retirement village operators Ryman Healthcare fell 51c to $8.31, and Summerset Group Holdings declined 33c to $10.70.
Westpac Banking Corporationwas up 84c to $27.10 after reporting a 63 per cent increase in net profit to $3.28 billion for the first half of the financial year.