Investors spooked by shock profit warning yesterday
Kier鈥檚 share price tumbled again on Tuesday, leaving the firm barely worth more than the amount it raised in last year鈥檚 rights issue.
It follows a bruising start to the week in which the business saw its value plummet by 43% after announcing a 拢40m writedown.
Shares in the firm reached a rock bottom of 150p this morning, recovering slightly to 156p as of 2.45pm 鈥� a figure still lower than its Monday closing price of 162p.
All of the numbers are less than the 184p launch price for Kier stocks when the firm floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1996, and are a mere 16% of the 1,060p the shares traded for in the first week of June 2018.
Kier鈥檚 market capitalisation now stands at 拢265.5m, a fraction of the 拢4.3bn it turned over in 2017/8 and only just above the 拢264m Kier investors were asked to cough up in rights issue in November as the firm attempted to shore up its balance sheet.
It comes as investor Neil Woodford 鈥� Kier鈥檚 largest shareholder, with a 20% stake in the company 鈥� has suspended trading in his fund after several savers dashed for the exit.
Woodford Equity Income has suspended trading to stop investors withdrawing their money. In a statement, the fund said it would 鈥渟uspend the issue, cancellation, sale, redemption and transfer of shares鈥�.
New Kier chief executive Andrew Davies is due to announce the results of a review of the business at the end of next month.
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