There were equal measures of confusion and fury as CSL’s annual general meeting got underway in Melbourne this morning, while on the ASX the now $87 billion biotech’s stock was sinking like a stone.
“The share price this morning has dropped around 18%,” said one baffled retail investor. “Can you tell us why this is and why the market knows something that the shareholders, apparently, don’t?”
“We’re asking to approve a pay increase for our CEO when most of us here are actually bleeding,” raged another. “We’re bleeding and we’ve been doing that for the last five years.”
Moments earlier, chief executive Paul McKenzie had unveiled deep cuts to the group’s full-year profit and revenue outlook due to a steeper-than-expected slide in vaccination rates in the US, where anti-vax sentiment is growing at an alarming rate.
