Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ):
The barrier gates have opened in ANZ Banking Group’s race for stayers. The prize is the Melbournebased bank’s wealth operations including the insurance, investments and advice businesses. Street Talk understands indicative bids are due in late May after prospective suitors received an information memorandum and due diligence documents spanning several hundred pages. The long-awaited sale documents landed on Tuesday afternoon, as revealed by this column, along with various communications to ANZ wealth employees.
Bellamy’s Australia Limited (BAL):
The Hong Kong-based fund manager that made big returns backing Chinese internet retail giant Alibaba has taken a substantial slice of Tasmania’s struggling infant formula marketer Bellamy’s Australia. A substantial shareholder notice lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday revealed Janchor Partners had been buying Bellamy’s shares since January 24. It has built up a 5.4 per cent stake.
BHP Billiton Limited (BHP):
The president of BHP Billiton’s American assets has urged the copper industry to transform its technology, culture and ultimately its productivity levels, in comments that come just days after the end of a 44-day strike at the company’s Escondida mine. BHP’s Daniel Malchuk said the copper industry spent a lot of time talking about the challenges of declining grades, deeper mines and higher expectations from host communities, but did little to try to solve these challenges. ‘‘We can’t just wait and expect things to happen, we have to be proactive in transforming the industry,’’ Mr Malchuk said on Wednesday morning. Mr Malchuk pointed to the recent 44-day strike at Escondida, the world’s biggest copper mine and 57.5 per cent owned by BHP, as an example of how hard it would be to make the Chilean copper industry more competitive.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (FMG):
The days of Andrew Forrest’s bold debt-fuelled strategy for Fortescue Metals Group might be over, with the company’s new chief financial officer, Elizabeth Gaines, signalling she is willing to move the company into a net cash position as it seeks to balance investment and shareholder returns. In her first interview since stepping into the role in early February, Ms Gaines told The Australian Financial Review she doesn’t plan to make any ‘‘sudden changes’’ to the mining company’s strategy, which has had it take advantage of higher-than-expected iron ore prices to dramatically reduce debt. The former Helloworld chief executive has been on the Fortescue board as a non-executive director, and a member of its audit and risk management committee and finance committee, since 2013.
Metcash Limited (MTS):
Metcash is working with IGA retailers and suppliers on a new price matching program aimed at stemming market share loss, which has accelerated since Woolworths turned the corner last year. Industry sources said Metcash was preparing to invest another $40 million to $50 million into reducing grocery prices under Price Match II, the second iteration of a successful program that cut prices on key grocery lines by about 3 per cent to match those at Coles and Woolworths. The first program, launched by Metcash chief executive Iain Morrice in 2014, helped stem the decline in Metcash’s wholesale revenues and boosted same-store sales at participating IGA retailers, who part-funded the price reductions. Comparable store sales in IGA supermarkets rose 1.4 per cent in 2016, twice the rate of growth in 2015, and sales at about 960 stores that matched prices rose by an average 3 per cent.
Telstra Corporation Limited (TLS):
A syndicate led by former Telstra director Geoff Cousins has made a formal offer to buy the Virgin Mobile business in Australia from the Singapore Telecommunications owned Optus. Cousins confirmed to Street Talk on Tuesday that he had made the offer to Optus in Australia and was awaiting a response. ‘‘I can confirm that a group of people have made an offer,’’ he said. ‘‘They are people who know a bit about telecommunications and the Virgin business.’’ Cousins would not be drawn on how much the syndicate had offered or when the offer was made. The purchase of Virgin Mobile by canny investors would boost competition in a sector already the subject of rising competition on price and capital investment.
Woodside Petroleum Limited (WPL):
Woodside Petroleum chief executive Peter Coleman has told LNG buyers they need to start committing to new long-term purchase contracts or they will miss out on getting access to the best projects as rival importers emerge. Mr Coleman used an address on Tuesday to the major Gastech conference in Japan to urge buyers to ‘‘look beyond the short term’’ and support new projects that would head off a potential shortfall in supplies nextdecade after the current global glut has been absorbed. ‘‘We need to look over the crest of the hill and it is clear a supply shortage looms, unless investment decisions are taken soon,’’ he said.
(Source: AIMS)
The barrier gates have opened in ANZ Banking Group’s race for stayers. The prize is the Melbournebased bank’s wealth operations including the insurance, investments and advice businesses. Street Talk understands indicative bids are due in late May after prospective suitors received an information memorandum and due diligence documents spanning several hundred pages. The long-awaited sale documents landed on Tuesday afternoon, as revealed by this column, along with various communications to ANZ wealth employees.
Bellamy’s Australia Limited (BAL):
The Hong Kong-based fund manager that made big returns backing Chinese internet retail giant Alibaba has taken a substantial slice of Tasmania’s struggling infant formula marketer Bellamy’s Australia. A substantial shareholder notice lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday revealed Janchor Partners had been buying Bellamy’s shares since January 24. It has built up a 5.4 per cent stake.
BHP Billiton Limited (BHP):
The president of BHP Billiton’s American assets has urged the copper industry to transform its technology, culture and ultimately its productivity levels, in comments that come just days after the end of a 44-day strike at the company’s Escondida mine. BHP’s Daniel Malchuk said the copper industry spent a lot of time talking about the challenges of declining grades, deeper mines and higher expectations from host communities, but did little to try to solve these challenges. ‘‘We can’t just wait and expect things to happen, we have to be proactive in transforming the industry,’’ Mr Malchuk said on Wednesday morning. Mr Malchuk pointed to the recent 44-day strike at Escondida, the world’s biggest copper mine and 57.5 per cent owned by BHP, as an example of how hard it would be to make the Chilean copper industry more competitive.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (FMG):
The days of Andrew Forrest’s bold debt-fuelled strategy for Fortescue Metals Group might be over, with the company’s new chief financial officer, Elizabeth Gaines, signalling she is willing to move the company into a net cash position as it seeks to balance investment and shareholder returns. In her first interview since stepping into the role in early February, Ms Gaines told The Australian Financial Review she doesn’t plan to make any ‘‘sudden changes’’ to the mining company’s strategy, which has had it take advantage of higher-than-expected iron ore prices to dramatically reduce debt. The former Helloworld chief executive has been on the Fortescue board as a non-executive director, and a member of its audit and risk management committee and finance committee, since 2013.
Metcash Limited (MTS):
Metcash is working with IGA retailers and suppliers on a new price matching program aimed at stemming market share loss, which has accelerated since Woolworths turned the corner last year. Industry sources said Metcash was preparing to invest another $40 million to $50 million into reducing grocery prices under Price Match II, the second iteration of a successful program that cut prices on key grocery lines by about 3 per cent to match those at Coles and Woolworths. The first program, launched by Metcash chief executive Iain Morrice in 2014, helped stem the decline in Metcash’s wholesale revenues and boosted same-store sales at participating IGA retailers, who part-funded the price reductions. Comparable store sales in IGA supermarkets rose 1.4 per cent in 2016, twice the rate of growth in 2015, and sales at about 960 stores that matched prices rose by an average 3 per cent.
Telstra Corporation Limited (TLS):
A syndicate led by former Telstra director Geoff Cousins has made a formal offer to buy the Virgin Mobile business in Australia from the Singapore Telecommunications owned Optus. Cousins confirmed to Street Talk on Tuesday that he had made the offer to Optus in Australia and was awaiting a response. ‘‘I can confirm that a group of people have made an offer,’’ he said. ‘‘They are people who know a bit about telecommunications and the Virgin business.’’ Cousins would not be drawn on how much the syndicate had offered or when the offer was made. The purchase of Virgin Mobile by canny investors would boost competition in a sector already the subject of rising competition on price and capital investment.
Woodside Petroleum Limited (WPL):
Woodside Petroleum chief executive Peter Coleman has told LNG buyers they need to start committing to new long-term purchase contracts or they will miss out on getting access to the best projects as rival importers emerge. Mr Coleman used an address on Tuesday to the major Gastech conference in Japan to urge buyers to ‘‘look beyond the short term’’ and support new projects that would head off a potential shortfall in supplies nextdecade after the current global glut has been absorbed. ‘‘We need to look over the crest of the hill and it is clear a supply shortage looms, unless investment decisions are taken soon,’’ he said.
(Source: AIMS)
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