Bleak year for listed packaging operators

Stock prices in the five big packaging companies in public ownership have had a bleak 12 months, with only one of the five showing any upswing.

Pact Group has led the way down, its share price off by two thirds over the year, while Pro-Pac lost one third of its value. Even perennial achiever Amcor suffered, its share price down by 20 per cent. Orora’s 12 months has seen the price of its stock end where it started, while Close The Loop is the only one of the five to show an improvement, up by 12 per cent on the year.

Amcor’s share price has been on a downward trend all year, the $18.29 price a year ago now $14.65, with the biggest drop occuring in May on its third quarter results.

The biggest casualty has been Pact Group, whose share price has lost 65 per cent of its value, going from $1.85 a year ago to 65c today. Pact was forced to issue a response to media speculation regarding the sale of its crate manufacturing and pooling business in March. 

Pro-Pac has lost a third of its share price value, down from 32c to 21c today. It hit 44c in August before a trading halt was requested, as the company sought debt restructuring.

Orora has seen its stock bounce around all year, starting at $3.37, going as low as $2.87, seeing a 20 per cent uplift on Valentine’s Day on its half year results, and ending exactly where it started.

Close The Loop is the only listed packaging company that has delivered an uplift in its share price to investors, rising by 12 per cent to 46c from 41c, the end-to-end recycling company seeing an uptick coming in the last two months, from its year low of 33c, following its acquisition of the two US electronic refurbishment and trading platform businesses for $99.7m.