Energy provider Locality Planning was a lesson in why English is as important as maths in school.
The company (ASX:LPE) released its quarterly update on Friday, saying that though it was downgrading its full-year 2019 revenue from $44 million to $32 million, profit would not be “effected”.
But perhaps it was getting a bit excited ahead of the long weekend, because it realised late on Tuesday afternoon that it had that backwards.
“Due to a typographical error, the fourth dot point in the announcement dated Friday 25th January incorrectly stated that EBITA and NPAT would not be effected,” it said, tail between its legs.
“It should have read as follows; EBITA and NPAT affected.”
In this usage ‘effected’ means to change — Locality Planning had told investors profit would not be changed because of that revenue downgrade.
Unfortunately, they meant affect, a word that in this case means something is impacted. So yes, unfortunately, profits will be impacted by that revenue catastrophe.
Its shares were hammered, tumbling from highs of 82c when the original announcement was made to 65c at close on Tuesday, a 21 per cent fall.
The updated announcement dropped at 3.50pm, precisely 10 minutes before the market closed.
Investors expect more selling on Wednesday.
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