China’s government is well-known for taking… radical measures when confronted with disagreement or criticism. It appears Chinese companies are no different. Case in point, during a Wednesday earnings briefing by Hong Kong-based Pax Global Technology, a maker of point-of-sale terminals, the CFO refused to continue with his presentation and kicked out a Macquarie analyst whose only crime was having a Sell rating on the company.
As the clip below shows, PAX (which should probably consider changing its name to Bellum) CFO Chris Lee can be seen standing over a seated Timothy Lam and ordering him to leave the conference room. Lam initiated coverage on PAX Global’s stock in April with an underweight rating, which made him the only analyst out of 17 tracked by Bloomberg to have a bearish recommendation at the time.
Pax Global (327 HK) kicked out analyst who rated them as Sell. Do listed companies have the right to do this? http://pic.twitter.com/SNb859kqPJ
— Terence Lim, CFA (@limyft) August 10, 2016
Cited by Bloomberg, Lee said that the analyst was asked to leave because Pax Global disputes parts of his report, not because of the rating. Lam wasn’t invited to the briefing, Lee said. Macquarie spokeswoman Ida Cheung declined to comment. All analysts should be able to attend the briefing, regardless of their view on the company, Macquarie’s Lam wrote in a note, in which he maintained his underweight rating yet ironically raised his target price by 10 H.K. cents.
On Thursday, the CFO, who didn’t realize his action was being televised, said he regretted his behavior, which was a “one-off” that didn’t reflect the management’s position and he welcomes “diverse points of view,” according to an e-mailed statement.
The reactions to the incident were amusing, as the following quotes by analysts – who don’t mind risking being kicked out too – reveal: “If someone with that temperament is leading up the finance department, which is arguably one of the most important, perhaps it raises questions how that department is run,” said Ryan Roberts, a Hong Kong-based analyst at MCM Partners, who attended the briefing.
Even worse, Nomura cut its rating on the company from Neutral to Reduce, in a report that was titled “CFO conduct disrupts shareholder value.” in which it wrote that “before the analysts briefing meeting started, the company’s CFO asked a sell-side analyst to leave the conference room,” Nomura analysts led by Leping Huang wrote in the note. “While we do not judge this dispute, we think this may hurt PAX Global’s shareholder value.”
PAX Global reported on Tuesday its first-half net income climbed to HK$310.6 million ($40 million) from HK$309 million a year earlier. Among the 19 analyst recommendations currently tracked by Bloomberg, 15 have a buy rating, two have neutral, while as of today, Macquarie and Nomura have bearish ratings. Lam’s 12-month target price implies a 5.6 percent drop for the stock from Wednesday’s close.
Meanwhile, in a move that is sure to infuriate the CFO, traders boosted bets against the company with short interest rising to a record 10.3% of its outstanding shares on Aug. 3, up from 1.6 % a year ago. For now at least, the CFO has no direct ability to kick out sellers and shorts.
For those wondering, Shares in the company dropped 2.1% at the close on Wednesday, their biggest loss in a month, after rallying 5.6% the previous day.
via http://ift.tt/2b1mhtJ Tyler Durden