SYDNEY, Sept 4 2021 – After multi-billion dollar losses and a share price collapse, Australia’s biggest climate polluter, AGL, will be delisted from the ASX-50.The Australian Stock Exchange made the announcement yesterday after markets had closed, in response to a September quarterly review that found the value of AGL had continued to sink as the troubled company failed to keep pace with the rapidly accelerating transition from coal to clean energy like wind, solar and batteries. [1]
“AGL’s delisting from the ASX 50 means Australia’s biggest climate polluter is no longer one of the nation’s biggest companies with AGL’s $3.9 billion market capitalisation, well below the $5 billion cut-off,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific Senior Campaigner Glenn Walker said.
“The collapse in AGL’s value is another blow for shareholders who have already seen more than $12 billion of wealth wiped out by AGL’s failure to adapt to changes in the energy market. AGL’s share price is already in freefall and further decline is almost inevitable as soon as markets reopen. [2]
“With Australia’s electricity grid operator stating that renewables have made coal increasingly unnecessary, AGL needs to end its foolhardy devotion to coal and come up with a plan to replace its coal burning power stations with clean and reliable renewable energy by 2030 at the latest. [3]
“AGL is bleeding money and the share price is in the gutter. There is nowhere left for AGL’s leadership to hide. Shareholders should hold the current leadership to account at the upcoming AGM and vote for both new leadership and strong action on climate change.”
Notes
An eighteen-year-old student striker has bought shares in energy giant AGL and nominated himself as a director, saying that he wants to transform AGL from Australia’s biggest climate polluter to a renewable energy powerhouse.
Ashjayeen Sharif, a first-year university student from Melbourne, is in the running for a directors role at AGL, to be voted on in AGL’s upcoming Annual General Meeting in September. His nomination is the first time in Australia that a climate activist has run for a leadership position at a major energy, fossil fuel or mining company.
More information here
Contact
Greenpeace Australia Pacific Communications Campaigner, Martin Zavan
0424 295 422