Shares in agribusiness and pastoral group Elders plummeted by 23 per cent on Monday after the company announced that long-serving chief executive Mark Allison will leave the role by this time next year, wiping $475 million from its sharemarket value.
Mr Allison, who has been at the helm since 2014, has engineered a strong turnaround at a company that almost went bust after the global financial crisis. But investors are now worried that a golden run of profit growth and capital discipline may be over, with consistent wet weather also injecting some uncertainty in the outlook for demand for crop chemicals and fertiliser.