The shares of Dunedin probiotic company Blis Technologies were hammered by shareholders yesterday after its downgraded expectations of posting a profit.
Its shares, trading at 3.3c earlier in the week, on opening yesterday slumped around 35% to trade at 1.8c, with more than nine million shares traded yesterday by 1pm.
Blis has more than 1.1billion shares on issue.
Blis said in May last year it had expected to break even this year, having since 2001 accumulated consecutive losses totalling more than $33million.
In a market update yesterday, chief executive Brian Watson said trading for the six months to September had a 46% revenue drop, from $3.83million to $2.06million, as distributors in Japan and the United States had purchased less stock this year, having run down their stock levels.
Mr Watson said he expected a before-tax loss of $1.24million for the half-year result, which will be shown in the half-year report, released late next month.
Blis was founded on a natural antibiotic to control streptococcal throat infections and manufactures sprays, lozenges and additives for dairy products. Its mainstay product has been its BlisK12 throat guard.
Mr Watson said in a statement while Blis' performance for the half-year was ``below expectations'', the board was anticipating a recovery in the second half of the financial year, ending March next year.
Contributors to the recovery would include a move into the peak sales period for Blis products during the northern winter.
There would also be new product launches in several markets, Mr Watson said.
Blis was stronger after revising its product portfolio and upgrading marketing collateral, including its online presence, he said.
