Here are 4 ASX stocks that changed their name recently

How often do you find ASX stocks that changed their name and you likely didn’t know about it?

Stocks can and do change their names, generally it is to look forward to a new future – often where they have divested an old business and/or picked up a new one. Sometimes, they are legally required to – as we’ll see from one example below. At other times stocks just want investors to forget about the past.

Does this move pay off? Sometimes it can, but other times you just wonder why companies bothered because they had such a good identity.

4 ASX stocks that changed their name recently

Redbubble to Articore (ASX:ATG)

Redbubble is a global marketplace, focused on independent artists. The parent company was until last November known by that name. This was despite buying a second global market place in 2018, in Teepublic.

When the pandemic struck, bored consumers engaged in eCommerce, and Articore was a beneficiary. Its revenue grew 132% year on year in the 12 months to June 2020. In the 12 months to June 2021, marketplace revenue rose by a further 58%. However, conditions normalised over the next couple of years and so did the share price.

Articore told investors last November that its name change was not just to try and move on from the past. ‘It more accurately reflects the operations of the group as a collective of branded marketplaces and our ambitions to expand over time by adding new operating companies,’ it said.

People Infrastructure to PeopleIn (ASX:PPE)

This company was and is our bourse’s largest recruitment and staffing business. The company’s name change occurred two years ago, but we couldn’t help including it here, given we don’t understand why it changed its name. Granted, it undertook the acquisition of the GMT Group of companies, a company specialising in IT hiring solutions. At the same time, it is not as if PeopleIn changed its name to that nor that it fundamentally changed the business.

Investors in this company are pondering what the recently passed labour hire laws will mean going forward.

Pharmaxis to Syntara (ASX:SNT)

Pharmaxis has had one of the more tortured histories of all biotechs. It was not a ‘one and done’ company like Factor Therapeutics, whereby it had just one asset, failed and the company goes kaput. Pharmaxis had several assets in the clinic, and some commercially, but had been suffered several setbacks along the way, particularly setbacks that came after progress was made.

Consider what happened in 2019, when Boehringer Ingelheim handed back the rights to a NASH disease drug, not because it didn’t work, but because it was worried about its interaction with other drugs. It is not like Pharmaxis walked away with nothing, it got $83m in milestone payments, but would have rather had it bought to market.

In changing its name, CEO Gary Phillips wanted to bring the company into a new era. It would be smaller, with 20-25 people, and has 3 compounds – one of which is PXS-5505 that is focusing on bone marrow disease myelofibrosis. it has orphan drug status and is in a Phase 2 trial set to report interim results this calendar year.

Genworth to Helia (ASX:HLI)

Helia had literally no other choice but to change its name. This company has always been a mortgage insurance company, but it was affiliated with a US company by the same name until 2022, not just commercially but the US company had a majority stake. The pair agreed to break up, although the Aussie company had to ditch the Genworth name, and it did so.

‘Helia, inspired by the sun, reflects who we are and how we use our expertise, experience, and understanding to show people possibilities, shine a light on solutions, and create brighter outcomes,’ CEO Pauline Blight-Johnston said at the time.

What are the Best ASX Stocks to invest in right now?

Check our buy/sell tips