Loxley shares slump 18 per cent

The shares declined sharply from the opening bell, heading south to the day's low of Bt1.87 before recovering slightly to close at Bt1.89.

Loxley owns 51 per cent of Loxley Gtech Technology, which won the state concession to supply and pro¬vide technical support for online lot¬tery sales vending machines.

Trinity Securities has downgrad¬ed Loxley shares from "buy" to "accu¬mulate" and cut the target price from Bt3.60 apiece to Bt3.20, in order to reflect further delays in the online lottery.

The broker predicts the project will be delayed to next year's second half, pending interpretation by the Council of State.

Deputy Finance Minister Pradit Pataraprasit recently announced postponement of the two and threedigit online lottery, which was pre¬viously scheduled to be available from September 17. The move fol¬lowed complaints about online lot¬tery sales and the contract with Loxley Gtech Technology.

Despite the indefinite postpone¬ment, Loxley's earnings will likely exceed the broker's normalised prof¬it estimate of Bt361 million this year, due to higher dividend from its sub¬sidiaries and affiliates, the broker said.

Loxley's normalised profit in the first half of this year shot up 110 per cent year on year to Bt329 million.