Street Talk

C’est bizarre: CSR share trading post French approach raises eyebrows

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Updated Feb 25, 2024 – 7.11pm, first published at 5.04pm

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Nine minutes. That’s how long CSR shares traded – before the ASX paused the stock – after Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that France’s Saint-Gobain was exploring a takeover of the local building materials group.

Until that report, the number of trades had been relatively flat. Moments after publication, they surged. Between 3.13pm and 3.22pm, when the pause came into force, some 2.7 million shares traded hands. That is, more than half the CSR shares traded that day did so in less than 10 minutes.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones. Email Sarah at sarah.thompson@afr.com

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column. Email Kanika at kanika.sood@afr.com.au

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review. Connect with Emma on Twitter. Email Emma at emma.rapaport@afr.com