POPULAR WORDS

March 2, 2010

Toll Holdings has defended the way it dealt with its announcement of a 32 percent profit drop last week, saying it kept the market informed of a potential drop over the last six months.

Responding to a query letter sent by the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), Toll secretary Bernard McInerney says the company first advised the public last August of a possible profit plunge.

According to McInerney, a release was issued on August 27 last year advising shareholders that Toll expected market conditions to “remain flat”.

This was then followed by another release in October which referred to an abnormal charge of $30 million relating to the acquisition of Japanese freight operator Footwork Express.

McInerney says Toll was confident it was not in breach of ASX rules, which require information likely to have a substantial effect on a company’s share price to be announced to the market.

Toll stock had recovered somewhat by the close of business yesterday, finishing 6.6 percent higher than at the beginning of the day at $7.25 each.

The price had plunged on the back of the enormous lost by more than 20 percent at the end of last week to $6.80.