St George sells out of Stockford
The St George Banking group has sold its stake in financial services consolidatorStockford.
The selling down by St George of the Stockford shares follows the banking group’s latest reviews of its wealth management business, which had the consolidator, among other investments, under the microscope.
The move by St George also coincides with the continuing poor performance of Stockford’s share price. The group’s shares were trading at $0.20 cents as of Friday last week, well down on the $1.30 they attracted when first listed on theAustralian Stock Exchangein 2000.
Stockford has also recently flagged a $4.5 million full financial year loss following lower-than-expected revenue and higher costs. The group also says it expects to write-off a further $2 million.
In the half year to December 2001, Stockford reported a $3.9 million loss, a figure almost $3.5 million worse than the corresponding period in 2000.
The group’s revenue grew by almost 400 per cent to reach $60.2 million for the half year, up from just over $12 million in the corresponding period in 2000. However the revenue growth was offset by a significant escalation in costs.
Stockford’s expenses grew from $12.8 million to $63.7 million to more than wipe out the revenue increase.
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