Ventia Shares Plunge 16% to 52-Week Low as New CEO's Restructure Comes With Second-Half Revenue Warning

SYDNEY — Shares of Ventia Services Group Ltd. tumbled more than 16% on Monday after the infrastructure services company's new chief executive unveiled a restructuring plan and warned that second-half revenue would fall.

Ventia shares fell 93 cents, or 16.23%, to A$4.80, after trading between A$4.67 and A$5.42. About 9.2 million shares changed hands, and the selloff cut the company's market value to about A$3.9 billion.

Strategy update

The decline followed a strategy update in which new chief executive Mark Ralston unveiled a plan to simplify and restructure the business after a 10-week review, while warning that second-half fiscal 2026 revenue would come in below the prior corresponding period.

Ventia said its telecommunications and energy segment continued to face challenges in the second half, reflecting lower year-on-year growth, though the impact was substantially mitigated through productivity improvements and cost initiatives.

Costs and savings

Ventia is targeting annualized cost savings of at least A$60 million by December 2027 and expects about A$30 million in one-off implementation and discontinued project costs, including a restructuring provision in the FY26 result.

Management reaffirmed underlying NPATA growth guidance of 7% to 10% for the full year, but the cost-savings target was seen as a longer-dated payoff offering little near-term comfort.

Institutional selling

Multiple substantial holders had already filed notices ceasing their positions in the days before the announcement, suggesting institutional selling had been building ahead of the strategy day.

The stock found a floor near its 52-week low of A$4.67 intraday. The scale of the selloff shows how little tolerance the market has for earnings uncertainty from a company valued for the predictability of its contracted revenue.

The shares are down about 16% over the past year.