SodaStream stock sinks, and Bloomberg cites ‘sanctions over Jewish settlements’

On January 15 we reported SodaStream stocks had plunged that Monday morning after the announcement Johansson had signed on as the corporations global ambassador. However, we noted at that time there was “no mainstream investment media mention regarding the growing boycott against the corporation.”

A week later we reported financial writers had been scrutinizing the stock and  listed several mainstream sources noting the controversy over the location of SodaStream’s headquarters in the occupied West Bank– making its product “blood bubbles” at one cocktail party reported by New York Magazine’s Kat Stoeffel.

And today– one day after SodaStream’s  Superbowl commercial went over like a lead balloon–so did the stock, slumping another 3.3 percent to $35.34, the lowest since Nov. 20, 2012.

And this time the stock price was linked to the controversy. Bloomberg’s headline screamed:  SodaStream Drops Amid Sanctions Over Jewish Settlements.

SodaStream slumped 3.3 percent to $35.34 in New York, the lowest since Nov. 20, 2012. The stock plunged 26 percent on Jan. 13 after SodaStream reported worse-than-forecast preliminary earnings for 2013.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is leading U.S. efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, cautioned Israel at the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 1 about an “increasing delegitimization campaign” that includes “talks of boycotts.” Actress Scarlett Johansson publicly split with Oxfam last week after the U.K.-based charity criticized her role as a spokeswoman for SodaStream, because of its plant in a settlement in the West Bank.

“John Kerry made comments about the economic damage of the sanctions and this scared investors a lot,” David Kaplan, an analyst at Barclays Plc who has a buy recommendation for SodaStream, said by phone from Tel Aviv….

The boycott debate comes after pro-Palestinian activists scored several successes in a campaign to blacklist businesses operating in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, land occupied by Israel since 1967 and claimed by Palestinians for a future state.

Dutch asset manager PGGM, which oversees more than 150 billion euros ($203 billion), announced last month it would stop investing in Israeli banks because of their financial operations in the settlements. Norway’s sovereign oil fund last week renewed an investment ban on two Israeli construction companies that build in the West Bank, Africa Israel Investments Ltd. and Danya Cebus Ltd.

Finally, people are listening. And remember that John Kerry only made his offhand remark about “boycotts” that hurt the stock, per the analyst quoted in Bloomberg, a day or so after SodaStream was the talk of the State House briefing. Methinks we’re having an impact. There’s been a massive shift in the discourse since we reported on Jan. 12 that Scarlett Johansson is the new face of apartheid. A long way.