The health crisis has drowned more than one company. The competition is fierce and it seems that all shots are allowed. Due to the many factors that preside over a security’s stock market listing, it is not uncommon to see some companies, although highly capitalized, experience record losses in a short period of time as markets fluctuate. So which are these companies that have made big losses in the shortest amount of time?
EDF: a loss of 400 million euros in 2021
Electrician’s market activity subsidiary, EDF Trading (EDFT), lost around €400 million in early October. A trader placed a risky bet in 2021, causing EDF a loss of around 400 million euros in a matter of hours. When we know that the EDF is 80% owned by the French state, we can only worry about the increase in the price of electricity!!!
Goldin Financial and Goldin Properties
Recent news has provided an editable case of a stock market crash that coincided with the collapse of these two companies owned by Chinese billionaire Pan Sutong. Following the collapse of the Hanergy Group specializing in photovoltaic energy, the two companies with a capital of twenty billion euros experienced massive collapse in a matter of hours, each losing more than 40% of their value. The concern quickly took over the markets, and during the day more than seventy million shares were sold, dropping two titles.
Ubisoft
At the end of 2013, the French company Ubisoft, one of the well-known companies in the video game sector, experienced the loss of the stock market, as it was disproportionate in a very short time. This led to a simple announcement from the company’s CEO, Yves Guillemot, confirming the delay of two of the firm’s most important upcoming games (Watch Dogs and The Crew) so that investors decided to forgo their shares. The title thus lost more than a quarter of its value on the Paris Stock Exchange, in less than a day, increasing almost continuously throughout the year. This wave of panic caused the French video game giant to lose a lot. Without invoking the difficulties this announcement would have brought, it’s a safe bet that the damage would have been even greater.
Sony Grounded by Microsoft
Sony (PlayStation) and Microsoft (Xbox and PC) compete ruthlessly: who will sell the most consoles and games, and in this trade war Microsoft is neglecting nothing by buying out big video game studios. On January 18, 2022 Microsoft recorded the largest purchase in the history of video games by paying Activision/Blizzard (Call of Duty, Warcraft…) an amount of $68.7 billion. In the hours following this purchase, Sony lost nearly $20 billion in the stock market as investors dumped it.
Apple
Another singular case of significant and swift loss: the firm Apple. On December 1, 2014, the famous brand suddenly lost 3% of its value in one minute on the Nasdaq, for a drop of more than 6% at the end of the day. During these deadly sixty seconds, the trade volume peaked at nearly seven million titles, for the famous brand as brutal as it was obscure. Traders have not found a rational explanation for this phenomenon, which generated huge losses for the company, which by then remained up to 64% with a capitalization of $700 billion since its inception.
airbus
In terms of record losses, let us refer to the dire situation experienced by Airbus Group last December. The combination of unfavorable factors would have disastrous consequences on the company’s stock market action: in less than a day, the company’s capitalization suffered an impressive loss of four billion euros. If the action fell more than 10% in a matter of minutes, it was due to the postponement of the delivery of the first A350 to Qatar Airways, an unexpected decision that threw the markets into turmoil.
In the risky game of the stock market, even companies with strong backs are not safe from brutal unresolved…