This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
Becton Property Group has celebrated its first anniversary as a listed company wondering what went wrong with its share price.
While many other property stock launched around the same time have flourished with share punter activity, Becton’s shares have remained tightly held amongst directors, family and friends, and its biggest shareholder of all Max Beck, who retains some 150 million shares valued at around $72 million at yesterday’s price.
Major shareholder Max Beck has been left with somewhat of a dilemma as what to due with his substantial shareholding in the successful Melbourne based property group.
In total, Beck and other directors hold shares worth well in excess of $100 million – this does not include private companies associated with its directors, families and friends – which have been held in escrow for between one and two years. More than 103 million shares are due to be released into the market with a further 104 million shares due to come out of escrow after the annual results for the June 2007 financial period.
This year, just under 30 million shares have changed hands, and in the 12 months in its listed existence around 43 million shares have traded of the 300 million plus shares.
Only recently, the shares, which listed at 50 cents on July 8 last year, dropped to a new low of 41.5 cents before recovering.
Public share punters have nibbled at the stock, but not in great amounts and institutional investors have not bothered.
There is little doubt Becton has the right management in place, it has a successful brand in Melbourne, Canberra and Newcastle for its high quality developments, and it now has a thriving investment management division that holds assets worth around $800 million, but its shares have been somewhat left lamenting.
It even paid an early dividend for the financial year of 2.5 cents to entice the market.
So, despite what appears on paper to be a listed company with a healthy future, Becton remains in the listed wilderness with little interest in its stock.
Property analysts believe a highly active listed Sydney property group is taking more than just a passing interest at Becton’s progress.
Yesterday, Becton closed up one cent at 48 cents on around 19,000 trades.
By Nelson Yap
