Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank Limited, Westpac Banking Corp (WBC) and Macquarie Group Limited (MQG):
The big four banks have cited precedents involving terrorist attacks to defend a class action lodged by an eclectic group of legendary US traders. FrontPoint, a hedge fund depicted in the film The Big Short, which made billions betting against toxic home loans, and Richard Dennis, the trader behind the famed ‘‘turtles experiment’’ in which a group of novices were trained to beat the market, argue they were harmed by the banks’ alleged manipulation of the bank bill swap rate in Australia. In submissions filed in the US District Court at the weekend and obtained by The Australian Financial Review, ANZ Banking Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, Westpac Banking Corp and Macquarie Group have called for the hedge funds’ case to be dismissed.
Bellamy’s Australia Limited (BAL):
Rebel shareholder Jan Cameron has emerged the victor after a bloody battle for boardroom control of organic baby formula maker, Bellamy’s Australia. Although Ms Cameron failed to secure a board seat from the extraordinary general meeting in Melbourne on Tuesday, her ally Chan Wai-Chan and her long-time lawyer, Rodd Peters, were voted onto the board. The dramatic day began with chairman Rob Woolley stepping down, leaving the other four directors Launa Inman, Charles Sitch, Michael Wadley and Patria Mann to face angry shareholders on their own. Ms Inman, who is on three other boards, also resigned at ahead of meeting. Ms Mann retained her seat, but Mr Sitch and Mr Wadley were both removed.
Challenger Limited (CGF):
Retirement products firm Challenger has joined Commonwealth Bank in the rush to raise hybrid capital amid evidence that investors are still too cautious to wade back into the stock market. On Tuesday Challenger began marketing a $350 million offer Capital Notes 2, as flagged by The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column, to support the annuities provider’s regulatory capital base. The offer comes as Commonwealth Bank set the margin on its PERLS IX hybrid security offer at 3.9 percentage points over the bank rate, offering investors an initial yield of 5.7 per cent.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (FMG):
Fortescue Metals Group says it has not lobbed a bid for Wesfarmers’ Curragh coal mine, after reports overnight speculated the iron ore miner was one of the main bidders for the asset. Fortescue told the ASX that such reports were ‘‘incorrect’’. ‘‘Fortescue Metals Group advises that media reports regarding the submission of an indicative bid for Wesfarmers Curragh coal mine assets on February 27 are incorrect,’’ the company said in a statement. Fortescue chief executive Nev Power went even further in an interview in the US on Tuesday, saying the company was not interested in investing in coal assets generally.
Qantas Airways Limited (QAN):
After a record first-half profit last year, underlying pretax earnings fell 7.5 per cent to $852 million for the six months to June. Net profit dropped 25 per cent to $515 million after the previous half was boosted by a $201 million gain on the sale of a terminal at Sydney Airport. Qantas declared an interim dividend of 7¢, payable on April 10. Following an extensive transformation program, Qantas is arguably in the best shape it has been for a long time. The challenge is that with the program – on target to reach $2.1 billion of benefits by the end of 2017 – approaching the finish line, much of the internal heavy lifting is done, leaving it more exposed to the vagaries of passenger demand, capacity and fuel prices. On the downside for longer-term investors, there is no getting away from the fact that airlines are exposed to factors beyond their control, such as economic shocks, natural disasters and terrorism.
WorleyParsons Limited (WOR):
WorleyParsons should have disclosed last year’s $2.9 billion takeover approach from the Dar Group, shareholders said, after the Dubai-based firm swooped and took a 13 per cent stake in the engineering company. Allan Gray managing director Simon Mawhinney said he preferred boards to be transparent with takeover approaches. ‘‘Best practice would have been to disclose the approach, because it wasn’t a crazy price,’’ Mr Mawhinney said. ‘‘I’m a bit surprised to read that they knocked back an $11.80 per share bid without perhaps telling shareholders about it’’.
(Source: AIMS)
The big four banks have cited precedents involving terrorist attacks to defend a class action lodged by an eclectic group of legendary US traders. FrontPoint, a hedge fund depicted in the film The Big Short, which made billions betting against toxic home loans, and Richard Dennis, the trader behind the famed ‘‘turtles experiment’’ in which a group of novices were trained to beat the market, argue they were harmed by the banks’ alleged manipulation of the bank bill swap rate in Australia. In submissions filed in the US District Court at the weekend and obtained by The Australian Financial Review, ANZ Banking Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, Westpac Banking Corp and Macquarie Group have called for the hedge funds’ case to be dismissed.
Bellamy’s Australia Limited (BAL):
Rebel shareholder Jan Cameron has emerged the victor after a bloody battle for boardroom control of organic baby formula maker, Bellamy’s Australia. Although Ms Cameron failed to secure a board seat from the extraordinary general meeting in Melbourne on Tuesday, her ally Chan Wai-Chan and her long-time lawyer, Rodd Peters, were voted onto the board. The dramatic day began with chairman Rob Woolley stepping down, leaving the other four directors Launa Inman, Charles Sitch, Michael Wadley and Patria Mann to face angry shareholders on their own. Ms Inman, who is on three other boards, also resigned at ahead of meeting. Ms Mann retained her seat, but Mr Sitch and Mr Wadley were both removed.
Challenger Limited (CGF):
Retirement products firm Challenger has joined Commonwealth Bank in the rush to raise hybrid capital amid evidence that investors are still too cautious to wade back into the stock market. On Tuesday Challenger began marketing a $350 million offer Capital Notes 2, as flagged by The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column, to support the annuities provider’s regulatory capital base. The offer comes as Commonwealth Bank set the margin on its PERLS IX hybrid security offer at 3.9 percentage points over the bank rate, offering investors an initial yield of 5.7 per cent.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (FMG):
Fortescue Metals Group says it has not lobbed a bid for Wesfarmers’ Curragh coal mine, after reports overnight speculated the iron ore miner was one of the main bidders for the asset. Fortescue told the ASX that such reports were ‘‘incorrect’’. ‘‘Fortescue Metals Group advises that media reports regarding the submission of an indicative bid for Wesfarmers Curragh coal mine assets on February 27 are incorrect,’’ the company said in a statement. Fortescue chief executive Nev Power went even further in an interview in the US on Tuesday, saying the company was not interested in investing in coal assets generally.
Qantas Airways Limited (QAN):
After a record first-half profit last year, underlying pretax earnings fell 7.5 per cent to $852 million for the six months to June. Net profit dropped 25 per cent to $515 million after the previous half was boosted by a $201 million gain on the sale of a terminal at Sydney Airport. Qantas declared an interim dividend of 7¢, payable on April 10. Following an extensive transformation program, Qantas is arguably in the best shape it has been for a long time. The challenge is that with the program – on target to reach $2.1 billion of benefits by the end of 2017 – approaching the finish line, much of the internal heavy lifting is done, leaving it more exposed to the vagaries of passenger demand, capacity and fuel prices. On the downside for longer-term investors, there is no getting away from the fact that airlines are exposed to factors beyond their control, such as economic shocks, natural disasters and terrorism.
WorleyParsons Limited (WOR):
WorleyParsons should have disclosed last year’s $2.9 billion takeover approach from the Dar Group, shareholders said, after the Dubai-based firm swooped and took a 13 per cent stake in the engineering company. Allan Gray managing director Simon Mawhinney said he preferred boards to be transparent with takeover approaches. ‘‘Best practice would have been to disclose the approach, because it wasn’t a crazy price,’’ Mr Mawhinney said. ‘‘I’m a bit surprised to read that they knocked back an $11.80 per share bid without perhaps telling shareholders about it’’.
(Source: AIMS)
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