Dye & Durham suffers record drop on Canadian property struggles

Dye & Durham Ltd.’s share price is the latest victim of the slowdown in Canada’s struggling property market, as the real estate software maker’s stock sustained its biggest one-day plunge ever on Thursday.

The Toronto-based company fell as much as 21 per cent, the most on record, after posting a larger-than-expected net loss for its fiscal fourth quarter. The stock slipped below the C$1 billion (US$740 million) market capitalization threshold, making it one of the smallest companies by value in Canada’s benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index.

Real estate transactions account for more than half of Dye & Durham’s revenues, and Chief Executive Officer Matthew Proud said on an earnings call Wednesday the company’s goal is to diversify its “exposure to real estate transactions to less than 33 per cent.” Globally, that figure stood at 58 per cent in the most recent quarter, down from 68 per cent in the same period a year earlier.