Isramart : NZX Drops By Record After Slashing Proceeds of Carbon Unit Sale

Isramart news:
NZX Group Ltd. had its biggest one- day drop in Wellington trading after the operator of New Zealand’s stock exchange slashed NZ$19.9 million ($14 million) from the expected sale proceeds of its carbon registry unit.

The lower priority given to carbon trading since the Copenhagen conference last year has cut demand for the registry’s service, NZX said in a statement late on Feb. 12. Accordingly, the company is less confident of the 2012 earnings forecast used to value TZ1 Registry when it was sold to Markit Group Ltd. for $37.1 million in July, NZX said. The stock fell as much 8.3 percent.

TZ1 was the world’s largest environmental registry, with more than 350 customers and 38 million metric tons of voluntary emission reductions recorded, when it was sold. Under the terms of the sale, the exchange will share TZ1’s profits with London- based Markit until the end of 2011, at which time it may gain or forfeit as much as $17 million depending on the registry’s performance.

NZX fell 18 cents to NZ$2 at 3:45 p.m. in Wellington, its lowest since Dec. 7. The stock is headed for its biggest one-day decline since it began trading in June 2003.

Amid tough conditions, TZ1 leads the market in customer acquisition, NZX said in its Feb. 12 statement. It’s well-placed to benefit when political and corporate demand for carbon instruments returns, the exchange said.