AMA Group's Turnaround Runs Into A Falling Share Price

Fund managers say the panel beating group's earnings are holding up even as the stock more than halved over FY2026

30 Jun 2026 · 3 min read

Forager Funds summed up the disconnect facing AMA Group in its June 2026 annual report: profit guidance was maintained at the company's third-quarter results despite pressure from higher fuel prices and cost-of-living strain on customers, yet the stock had more than halved over the 2026 financial year. The manager, an owner of the panel beating group, said its Capital SMART segment remained in high gear with strong margins continuing, helped by an improving relationship with its primary insurance client that is expected to deliver more locations and higher volumes over time, while the AMA Collision segment still needs network optimisation and process improvements to lift its margins.

Forager had already used an earlier bout of weakness to add to its position. In an April 2026 presentation, the manager said AMA Group had caught the market's eye as investors rotated out of small caps generally, pointing to a very low multiple of earnings for a business whose earnings were still growing, and said the scale of the reaction gave it the chance to add modestly to its holding.

A board-led recapitalisation story

The current investment case traces back to a governance overhaul in 2024. Thorney Investment Group's November 2025 annual report described AMA Group as the single largest contributor to its FY2025 performance, crediting a push it led with associated fund TOP to recompose the company's board following a period of poor governance and operational execution. That process concluded in mid-June 2024 with a new board chaired by Brian Austin, which set about recapitalising the balance sheet, with Thorney's TOP fund acting as an anchor participant in that raising, streamlining operations and working to restore the market's belief in the underlying quality of the business.

This group set about recapitalising the company's balance sheet, where TOP was an anchor participant, streamlining its operations and restoring the market's belief in the underlying quality of AMA's business.

— Thorney Investment Group, Annual Report, November 2025

Wentworth Williamson joined the register more recently, initiating a modest position in the December 2025 quarter that it said reflected conviction in the company's medium-term turnaround and value-realisation potential, a smaller and later-stage bet than Thorney's board-level involvement but pointed at the same underlying thesis.

What managers are watching next

With Capital SMART performing well and AMA Collision still the segment requiring work, the near-term questions for managers are whether network optimisation can lift Collision margins in line with Forager's expectations, and whether the stock's sharp 2026 decline, despite maintained guidance, reflects a genuine change in the earnings outlook or simply the broader small-cap rotation Forager pointed to in April.