Copyright theage
CSL shocked financial markets this week with the admission that, despite two years of declining vaccination rates in the US, it still can’t find a bottom to the market. “Vaccination rates are a surprise to us. It’s true,” company chair Brian McNamee told CSL’s annual meeting this week as its shares dived. “Did we think the declines we’d already seen in the last two years in the key US market … given the severity of the disease last year … did we expect that vaccination rates would drop again another 14 to 15 per cent? Remarkable, but it’s our reality.” The vaccine-induced profit downgrade burned as much as $17 billion off CSL’s market valuation and has forced the company to indefinitely delay plans to spin off its multibillion dollar vaccine business Seqirus as a separate entity. CSL has too much skin in the US game to name who was responsible for this reality check, but some analysts have not been as shy.
