Australia’s embattled stock exchange operator is set to face tough shareholder questions, as it grapples with regulator woes, a battered share price and a hunt for a new boss.
The Australian Securities Exchange’s share price tumbled more than three per cent the day before it was due to post its interim financial result on Thursday, which will be followed by a shareholders’ call.
Investor confidence was rattled by Tuesday night’s announcement that managing director and CEO Helen Lofthouse will step down in May.
The bourse operator has yet to find a replacement for Ms Lofthouse.
ASX’s share price recently plumbed depths not seen since January 2017, and is trading at a more than 40 per cent discount to record highs set in 2021.
The slump follows a number of embarrassing outages, outdated coding errors and the failure to replace its ageing settlement system.
To make matters worse for ASX, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in October cleared the way for US exchange operator CBOE to list companies on its platform.
A project to replace the CHESS settlement system with blockchain technology was scrapped in 2022 after seven years, at a cost of $250 million.
ASX chair David Clarke said Ms Lofthouse had steered the company through a difficult time in its history.
“Helen took the CEO role at an exceptionally challenging time for ASX,” Mr Clarke said.
“She took the difficult decision to stop the previous CHESS project and reset it, and she has driven a significant uplift in our technology investment and delivery, and risk focus.”
ASX leadership, including Ms Lofthouse, will address shareholders for the first time since promising ASIC it would pay smaller dividends to help raise a $150 million capital charge required to support its transformation plans.
The corporate watchdog’s final report on the bourse operator is due at the end of March.
