AGL Energy (AGL):
AGL Energy, Origin Energy and Energy Australia have backed acall by the Climate Institute for a 2050 carbon emissions target consistent with Australia’s obligations to aim at zero net emissions. AGL’s Cameron Reid co-authored a TCI policy paper which comes as submissions to the Turnbull government’s climate policy review will soon fall due. Origin Energy and the Australian Energy Council – the generators’ lobby – helped with drafting it.
BHP Billiton Limited (BHP):
Recently the chairman of one of BHP Billiton’s competitors asked for an opinion on whether agitated hedge fund Elliott Group had any chance of getting what it wanted. Everyone says Elliott Group contains a collection of extremely hardworking and commercially savvy investors. Yet the plan presented to BHP is utterly undeliverable. So either they have not done their homework in the eight months they have been in conversation with BHP or they haven’t yet told us what they really want and how they intend to extract it. Now, as odd as it may seem, it might well have fallen to another hedge fund to distil an achievable divestment strategy from Elliott Group’s three steps to the release of $US46 billion of latent BHP value. An exclusive report by The Australian Financial Review’s Jonathon Shapiro announced that BHP had now attracted pressure to reform from a second activist fund, the locally based Tribeca Global Natural Resources Fund.
Caltex Australia Limited (CTX); Woolworths Limited (WOW):
Caltex Australia is making headway in its attempt to plug a $100 million-plus hole in profits when its 13-year fuel partnership with Woolworths comes to an end, gaining clearance for acquisitions and accelerating its convenience strategy. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has approved Caltex’s $95 million acquisition of Melbourne-based Milemaker Petroleum and Caltex is confident that its proposed $324 million acquisition of Gull New Zealand will be approved by competition regulators shortly. As part of its Freedom of Convenience strategy, Caltex has opened the first three Foodary on-the-go food retail outlets – achieving sales growth of 20-35 per cent– and has announced alliances with Boost Juice, Sumo Salads, Guzman Y Gomez, HelloFresh and Parcel Point. It also acquired a Melbourne grab-and-go retailer, Nashi, which operates nine stores. Speaking to shareholders at Caltex’s annual meeting in Sydney on Thursday, chief executive Julian Segal described the likely loss of Caltex’s 3.5 billion-litre wholesale supply contract with Woolworths as a ‘‘short-term setback for Caltex’’. Mr Segal said analyst estimates that Caltex would lose b $100 million to $150 million in earnings if BP gained clearance to acquire Woolworths’ fuel business for $1.8 billion were ‘‘not unreasonable’’. However, he said there was still uncertainty as to whether the BPWoolworths deal would be completed.
Downer EDI Limited (DOW) ; Spotless Group Holdings Limited (SPO):
Downer EDI has asked the Takeovers Panel to order Spotless to release an additional target’s statement on its $1.2 billion takeover, claiming its initial statement has ‘‘information deficiencies’’. Spotless’s board told investors last week they should reject Downer’s takeover bid of $1.15 per share, arguing that it was confident ‘‘the fundamental strengths of Spotless’s core business, together with management’s execution of the strategy reset, will deliver greater value to Spotless’s shareholders than the Downer offer in the medium term.’’
National Australia Bank (NAB):
Inherent strengths in the Australian economy including population growth should encourage companies to borrow at a faster rate as National Australia Bank, the country’s largest business bank, said it stood ready to invest more to grow market share as automation helped reduce costs Inherent strengths in the Australian economy including population growth should encourage companies to borrow at a faster rate as National Australia Bank, the country’s largest business bank, said it stood ready to invest more to grow market share as automation helped reduce costs. A key message from NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn, as he delivered a $3.29 billion interim cash profit, was that businesses around the country should ‘‘back themselves to grow’’ given balance sheets are strong and confidence is at a nine-year high, according to NAB’s own survey. We can’t expect the government to do everything. The role of business is to take risk and grow. Private business is, after all, 75 per cent of the economy. Andrew Thorburn, NAB chief executive. Such a response would help lift net interest income in NAB’s business and private bank, which was up 4.5 per cent for this half, and in the corporate and institutional bank, where interest income was down 2 per cent due to increased competition.
(Source: AIMS)
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