oOh!media has told the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that it would not expect a reasonable person to think that the trading update it gave last month would lead to the 39 per cent share price drop that it did.
The ASX sent oOh! a letter asking for clarification on why the firm did not let it know about its slightly disappointing earnings ahead of time when it released a trading update last month.
oOh! released its Macquarie Australia Conference Presentation last month, ahead of a conference that its CEO Cathy O’Connor (pictured) and CFO Chris Roberts were due to speak at. In that presentation, one slide reference said that the company was facing a “softening media market and the end of Q1 and into Q2” and that its trading was “softening significantly in March.”
Following the release of the presentation, oOh!’s share price dropped by more than a quarter in 24 hours and has continued to fall since.
At the time, analysts told B&T that the market’s reaction to the news was “excessive.”
“Conditions deteriorated in April (revenue down 10 per cent), and management’s view that the June-quarter growth may still end up positive due to emerging recovery signs is falling on deaf ears. However, revenue recovery was never going to be smooth this year, and the prior-year comparisons are especially tough early this year,” added Brian Han an analyst at financial firm Morningstar.
oOh! explained in its letter to the ASX that it “did not consider the Information to be information that a reasonable person would expect to have a material effect on the price or value of its securities.”
It also added that it would “not generally release monthly revenue results, as it is only part way through a reporting period and the position at a point in that period does not mean that the situation will prevail at the end of the reporting period, given the variables that can affect the Company’s earnings over a reporting period.”
