By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor
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Friday 23rd November 2001 |
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The company, once a market favourite, has told shareholders at its AGM on Friday that the past year has been a trying one but it is well positioned for a market recovery.
Advantage's shares have slumped dramatically from one-time highs of over $5.60 but the business confirmed to shareholders that it is in good company, quoting a report published by media earlier in the week.
"We recently commissioned a well respected, independent business analyst, Hugh Ammundsen to provide us with an independent comparison of global tech stock performance so we could examine our performance in a wider context," chairman Evan Christian told shareholders.
"The overall conclusion is that the movements in Advantage's share price are well in line internationally with companies in the technology space."
Advantage says the difference is that overseas, technology share prices have rebounded more quickly than in the illiquid NZ market.
Mr Christian says the report claims there is persuasive evidence that external market factors are the primary cause of the company's price decline and that growth via acquisition was the industry norm and has widely led to losses via substantial goodwill write-downs and restructure costs.
"It is reasonable to infer that the nature of the NZ market has impacted the speed of Advantage's share price recovery," the report states.
Mr Christian has pointed out that despite a loss of almost $66 million in the year ended June, which included writing of $60 million in goodwill, the company achieved a neutral operating cash flow position for the year.
"Preserving working capital has been a high priority for your directors," he says.
Advantage announced this week it wants to issue a further 14.5 million shares to complete acquisitions and to raise capital of $1.6 million.
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