Challenger moves to reassure shareholders

Annuities provider Challenger has moved to placate anxious shareholders with a profit update after the company’s share price dropped by almost 12 per cent last week.

: By Tim Stewart; Monday, 25 January 2016

Challenger’s share price fell from $7.82 on Wednesday morning to $6.99 on Thursday at the close of trade – a drop of almost 12 per cent.

Challenger issued a statement to the ASX on Friday morning confirming the company is in compliance with its ASX-mandated continuous disclosure requirements.

In addition, the company released its unaudited results for the half year ending 31 December 2015 ahead of their official release on 16 February.

Challenger said it expects to report a normalised profit after tax in the range of “$180 million to $185 million” – up from the first half 2014-15 result of $155 million.

First half statutory profit after tax is expected to be in the range of $225 million to $235 million, which is a significant improvement on last year’s $130 million.

Challenger is also set to benefit “positive investment experience and profit on the sale of Kapstream [Capital]”.

The company’s share price jumped sharply on the release of the statement on Friday morning, finishing the day up 5 per cent at $7.43.

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