As of November 14, 2018 according to The Australian’s Damon...

As of November 14, 2018 according to The Australian’s Damon Kitney and Perry Williams there were no regrets despite the plunge in price .
The shares had fallen more than 40% in three months and the low on November 14 was $3.05 .(closing price $3.25)

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/bu...s/news-story/ab570364d958d86b7b79bfdfad42c022
No regrets, says Pact Group’s Raphael Geminder

Pact Group chairman Raphael Geminder.

Packaging billionaire Raphael Geminder says he has no regrets about taking his company public and claims there is still plenty of money to be made on Pact Group shares, despite another profit downgrade yesterday which sent their price tumbling.

Pact shares plunged by as much as 15.3 per cent, or 55 cents, to $3.05 after the company said its 2019 earnings guidance had been cut to $245 million, compared with its previous forecast of $270m to $285m. They closed 9.7 per cent lower at $3.25.

The shares are now well below their issue price of $3.80 in 2013 and have fallen more than 40 per cent in the past three months. The latest downgrade was blamed on lags in recovering higher than anticipated resin costs and rising charges for contract manufacturing materials.

Mr Geminder — a member of the notoriously private Pratt family, whose late patriarch Richard Pratt was burnt by his involvement with the public markets and strenuously kept his company Visy private — said he had no regrets about floating his company.

“No, not at all. The company has a lot to do but I don’t think we are in a world of pain,’’ he told The Australian after Pact’s annual general meeting

“I focus on value and I focus on ‘where is the company going?’ We have been a public company for five years, it has been an interesting process, I don’t think there is any reason to believe today that we made the wrong decision floating the company. I think we made the right decision. The share price is a reflection of how investors see the future. Clearly I see the future very differently.”

Mr Geminder, Pact’s largest shareholder with a 40 per cent stake, said he was not disappointed about issuing a profit downgrade yesterday just three months after Pact missed its full-year earnings expectations. After the annual result the company ousted boss Malcolm Bundey after less than three years in the role and a global search process continues for his successor. In the interim Mr Geminder is executive chairman.

“I am not disappointed. If you compare our result to how we went last year, we are doing better. If you look at the return we are delivering as a company, the metrics are not bad. Some people are going to make a lot of money on these shares,’’ he said.

The company’s shares plunged by 22 per cent on August 15, its biggest ever decline, after its full-year net profit missed both analyst consensus estimates by 10 per cent and the company’s own indication it would boost last year’s earnings figure.

That prompted the manufacturer’s second-largest shareholder, Investors Mutual’s Anton Tagliaferro, to write a letter to the company’s board calling for a stronger performance from the packaging producer.

“I have a lot of engagement with Anton, he is a big shareholder, he is someone I have a high respect for. He is a partner, he owns a substantial stake in the business. I listen to all my shareholders,’’ Mr Geminder said.

Asked if he felt Mr Tagliaferro was comfortable with where Pact is at, he replied: “I’d say that Anton is a long-term investor, he is a shrewd investor and I think he has backed a good company.”

Despite the lower earnings Pact did maintain its dividend at 23 cents per share in August, which is now delivering a yield of more than 7 per cent given the share price fall.

Mr Geminder said while future payments were a matter for the board, “the intention is to continue with dividends, the question is the quantum.”

He said despite the pressures of higher energy prices and elevated commodity costs, the group saw no structural changes in its core rigid plastics business and was reviewing its energy use.

“We need to look at consumption. How we get better making product with less consumption,’’ he said.