4 ASX stocks that lost major clients and were never the same again

ASX stocks that lost major clients are more common than you might think. Many companies will make one of its major clients as a key sticking point, indicating that its product or service is useful to companies in the industry. But it only takes the loss of such a contract for the revenue to dry up, and investors see just how useful the product was to the rest of the industry.

We were inspired to think about such companies by the example of Helia (ASX:HLI), a mortgage insurer that earlier this week told investors it had all but lost CBA as a customer.

CBA had entered into exclusive negotiations with another provider, negotiations that if successful would lead to the current contract not being renewed beyond its expiry on December 31 2025. This contract represented 44% of GWP (Gross Written Premium) in FY24, although Helia has not (yet) updated any guidance it has given the market.

This isn’t the first time Helia has lost a major customer. In 2017, when it was known as Genworth, it lost Macquarie, which at that time represented 14% of GWP. Then in 2020, it lost NAB which defected to QBE.

Helia will likely live to fight another day. But this cannot be said of all companies in Helia’s situation.

4 ASX stocks that lost major clients and were never the same again

BSA (ASX:BSA)

BSA designs, builds, installs, operates and maintains major infrastructure – mostly telco infrastructure. It may yet live to fight another day, but it now sits at 6.1c after being 99c per share on February 13, 2025. 80% of its revenue was derived from the National Broadband Network (NBN), but it looks like this won’t be the case for much longer. It has a contract until September 30, 2025 but it seems all but certain that this won’t be renewed, as the NBN told BSA that,’ it [BSA] has not been selected as a preferred tenderer on the new nbn Field Services Contract’.

Magellan (ASX:MFG)

Many stocks that fell in the post-COVID era declined due to rising interest rates and/or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For Magellan, it was the loss of its mandate with UK fund manager St James’ Palace – a mandate worth $23bn to the group. Now, there were other reasons too such as the departure of CEO Brett Cairns and troubles facing fund managers which we spelled out in greater detail here.

Magellan would lose more big-name mandates in the following years including HESTA and Stack, but it was St James’ Palace that triggered alarm bells among the company’s investors.

InPayTech

Now, this company’s share price has (finally) recovered, but it is a different company after merging with ComplyPath. In February 2018, its customer WA Super opted to switch to SuperChoice for its clearing house service provider. InPayTech had a software product that helps transferring superannuation paid by an employer from their account to the super fund, and the company earned the income on money when it was in transit.

‘At WA Super, we regularly review our corporate suppliers because it is our job to identify providers that offer quality services for the best price.  Therefore, as part of a recent review and tender process, we’ve made the decision to switch to SuperChoice,’ WA Super said. This loss came only month after it lost Xero as a customer.

Platinum Asset Management

About a year ago, Platinum disclosed it lost $1.4bn in mandated funds from one large client. This was not all the money it had with that client, but was a reduction in size of the mandate. This client had indicated to Platinum that it,’ intends to rebalance its exposure away from benchmark agnostic global equity managers’.

Platinum is far from collapsing, but is less than half of what it was prior to this announcement, and has indicated it will be a different business. Only a month before this announcement, it announced measures to revitalise the company including a review of its product offerings and distribution channels, a review and reorganisation of its investment research function, among others.

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