7/7/2005
Australian Red Light Camera Stocks Plunge on US DevelopmentsTransol and Redflex plunge to new Australian Stock Exchange lows upon bad news in US photo enforcement market.
Two Australian red light camera makers continue their market slide after Australian Stock Exchange investors learn of cities rejecting photo enforcement in the United States. Late last month, the city of Dalton, Georgia decided not to deploy the red light camera system it had been testing under contract with Transol, a red light camera maker based in Melbourne, Australia.
On Tuesday, Transol's financier Allleasing reported that this affected the camera maker's bottom line. Investors quickly unloaded over seven million shares of the stock as it plunged from 17.5 cents on June 30 to just under 6 cents today.
Arch-rival Redflex, also based in Melbourne, dropped 6 cents on the Transol news. Redflex lost its red light camera contract with Virginia Beach last Friday after the Virginia legislature rejected photo enforcement in the state. In May after the Australian Stock Market learned of Ohio House-passed legislation that would effectively ban red light cameras, Redflex stock plunged to AUD $3.01. As of today it had dropped to $2.75.