A neighbourhood dispute over power poles just deleted about A$3 billion from NextDC's market value. Read that again. Power poles.
NextDC is a data center operator in the ASX top 100. It has hyperscale customers, AI ambitions, and a debt load the size of a small nation. Residents of West Footscray, Melbourne, stood near some utility poles and said no.
Jemena, the electricity distributor, suspended the upgrade work. It cited safety concerns and restricted site access. Work won't restart before February 2027.
NextDC then cut its fiscal 2027 EBITDA guidance to A$245 million to A$265 million. The old range was A$385 million to A$410 million. Revenue guidance fell to A$475 million to A$500 million from A$615 million to A$640 million.
That is a worst-day-since-2010-listing kind of cut. The stock closed down 41.7%.
Retail traders called this an AI infrastructure play. It was a zoning meeting with a ticker symbol.
The shares had already fallen about 65% over the past year. Somebody still bought Friday's close at A$9.18. That person is now holding A$5.74 and a strong opinion about transformers.
NextDC also froze all new development projects and land purchases. Its A$8.7 billion in liquidity is intact. Its dignity was not insured.
Hedge funds saw this coming. NextDC ranked among the 30 most shorted ASX companies, with short interest at 8.5% of shares. Professionals read the council minutes. You read a Reddit thread titled "NXT to the moon."
The chart looked great right up until a man in a hi-vis vest couldn't get past a protest.
Your portfolio was brought down by people who live near a pole.
Photo by on Unsplash
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