‘Investors have voted’: Market baulks at Maas Group’s radical AI pivot, $100m Firmus deal
The response to Maas Group’s billion dollar asset sale and data centre investment has been brutal, with the stock down 25% on the ASX. But one of its biggest backers says the pivot is the right move.
Industrial conglomerate Maas Group has taken the unusual step of agreeing a billion dollar sale of its core construction materials business without using any financial advisers as part of a radical pivot into AI infrastructure that received a frosty response from the market.
The ASX small cap darling’s shares sank by nearly 25% on Thursday pushing its market value below $1.7 billion, which is less than the value of the potential proceeds from the sale of its construction materials business to the local subsidiary of German-based Heidelberg Materials. Maas also announced a $100 million investment into ASX hopeful data centre play Firmus Group.
But while the market response to the moves were brutal, one of Maas’ biggest investors Wilson Asset Management has backed the transactions, confidently declaring that management has made the right call.
Wilson lead portfolio manager Oscar Oberg, whose funds hold shares in Maas and Firmus, told Capital Brief that “we are surprised by the way the shares have reacted given the price MGH has achieved for its construction materials business is excellent and well above peers that have transacted recently”.
