AMP Ltd (AMP):
AMP chief executive Craig Meller says that he is ‘‘open-minded’’ when it comes to the possibility of selling its beleaguered, but improving life insurance business. Speaking to The Australian Financial Review after a sometimes hostile annual meeting punctuated by a shareholder lambasting the company and the directors for its poor performance in 2016, Mr Meller said he was happy with the life insurance arm’s recent improvement.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ):
The $6.2 billion tax on banks was evidence of a breakdown in the relationship between the financial institutions and the Parliament, for which the banks share some responsibility, says the chief executive of ANZ Bank, Shayne Elliott. In an interview with The Australian Financial Review , Mr Elliott said there was no stopping the tax given its blanket political support. The challenge for the banks now was to move on and rebuild the relationship. ‘‘The levy is inevitable, we know that. It’s a regrettable policy, it’s a regrettable state of affairs,’’ he said. ‘‘We have done a lot of work in the last 18 months, clearly we need to do a lot more and we will. We do need to move on. The industry has been heavily reviewed but we now need to repair the relationship for the good of the country.’’
BHP Billiton Limited（BHP）:
Elliott Associates is continuing to meet BHP Billiton investors in the northern hemisphere this week, as it seeks to bounce back from the blows Treasurer Scott Morrison and ratings agency Moody’s landed on its activist campaign last week. Elliott Associates is continuing to meet with BHP Billiton investors in the northern hemisphere this week, as it seeks to bounce back from the blows Treasurer Scott Morrison and ratings agency Moody’s landed on its activist campaign last week. Elliott was touring the offices of BHP shareholders in Sydney and Melbourne last week when Moody’s suggested higher shareholder returns would be credit negative, and Mr Morrison declared that BHP would be committing a criminal offence if it adopted Elliott’s proposal to collapse the duallisted structure.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA); National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB); Westpac Banking Corp Fully Paid Ord. Shrs (WBC):
The CFOs of Australia’s five largest banks have been told by Treasury the new bank tax will apply to a wider range of liabilities than initially thought, as the finance chiefs argued the tax could reduce their balance sheet strength just as the prudential regulator was trying to make them stronger. In a meeting between Treasury officials and the CFOs of the four major banks plus Macquarie after the $1.5 billion-a-year tax was announced in the budget, Treasury confirmed the levy will be deductible from corporate income tax and will not generate franking credits. The meeting was attended by Commonwealth Bank of Australia CFO David Craig, Westpac Banking Corp CFO Peter King, National Australia Bank CFO Gary Lennon, ANZ Banking Group CFO Michelle Jablko and Macquarie CFO Patrick Upfold.
Harvey Norman Holdings Limited (HVN); JB Hi-Fi (JBH):
JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Murray has downplayed fears that Amazon’s arrival will crimp the retailer’s sales and decimate margins as prices come under pressure. In a report on Thursday, Citigroup slashed its long-term earnings forecasts for JB Hi-Fi more than 40 per cent and Harvey Norman more than 30 per cent after analysing the impact of Amazon Prime on major consumer electronics retailers in the United States, Britain and Germany. Citi analyst Bryan Raymond said the bank’s proprietary surveys indicated Amazon’s prices were 15 per cent lower than those at Australian retailers in three major categories – tablets, telco and headphones – and average selling prices would need to fall about 10 per cent to narrow the price gap to about 5 per cent. ‘‘This will likely drive 7 per cent to 11 per cent declines in sales productivity and about 180 basis points to 250 basis points declines in EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) margins over three to four years,’’ Mr Raymond said.
Macquarie Group Ltd (MQG):
NSW will reap nearly $3 billion from the sale of power distributor Endeavour Energy in a $7.6 billion deal Premier Gladys Berejiklian described as ‘‘outstanding’’. As revealed by Street Talk, Macquarie Group’s infrastructure arm and partners AMP Capital and two foreign funds snared a 50.4 per cent stake in the last of the ‘‘poles and wires’’ assets on offer. The opportunity to tap into the growth corridor of south-western Sydney has spurred what NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian described as an ‘‘outstanding’’ $7.6 billion deal for the sale of power distributor Endeavour Energy to a Macquarie Group-led consortium. As first reported in Street Talk, Macquarie’s infrastructure arm and partners AMP Capital and two foreign funds beat a rival consortium to snare a 50.4 per cent stake in Endeavour, the last of the ‘‘poles and wires’’ assets offered by the NSW government. With the privatisation of Western Power off the table under new West Australian Premier Mark McGowan and no sign of a change of policy in Queensland, Endeavour was the last evident opportunity to take control of a long-life, regulated asset providing the sort of stable returns cherished by infrastructure, pension and sovereign wealth funds. The transaction values the state’s third-biggest electricity distributor at more than $9 billion in total, including debt, beating the equivalent multiple of last year’s difficult sale of the largest network owner, Ausgrid.
(Source: AIMS)
AMP chief executive Craig Meller says that he is ‘‘open-minded’’ when it comes to the possibility of selling its beleaguered, but improving life insurance business. Speaking to The Australian Financial Review after a sometimes hostile annual meeting punctuated by a shareholder lambasting the company and the directors for its poor performance in 2016, Mr Meller said he was happy with the life insurance arm’s recent improvement.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ):
The $6.2 billion tax on banks was evidence of a breakdown in the relationship between the financial institutions and the Parliament, for which the banks share some responsibility, says the chief executive of ANZ Bank, Shayne Elliott. In an interview with The Australian Financial Review , Mr Elliott said there was no stopping the tax given its blanket political support. The challenge for the banks now was to move on and rebuild the relationship. ‘‘The levy is inevitable, we know that. It’s a regrettable policy, it’s a regrettable state of affairs,’’ he said. ‘‘We have done a lot of work in the last 18 months, clearly we need to do a lot more and we will. We do need to move on. The industry has been heavily reviewed but we now need to repair the relationship for the good of the country.’’
BHP Billiton Limited（BHP）:
Elliott Associates is continuing to meet BHP Billiton investors in the northern hemisphere this week, as it seeks to bounce back from the blows Treasurer Scott Morrison and ratings agency Moody’s landed on its activist campaign last week. Elliott Associates is continuing to meet with BHP Billiton investors in the northern hemisphere this week, as it seeks to bounce back from the blows Treasurer Scott Morrison and ratings agency Moody’s landed on its activist campaign last week. Elliott was touring the offices of BHP shareholders in Sydney and Melbourne last week when Moody’s suggested higher shareholder returns would be credit negative, and Mr Morrison declared that BHP would be committing a criminal offence if it adopted Elliott’s proposal to collapse the duallisted structure.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA); National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB); Westpac Banking Corp Fully Paid Ord. Shrs (WBC):
The CFOs of Australia’s five largest banks have been told by Treasury the new bank tax will apply to a wider range of liabilities than initially thought, as the finance chiefs argued the tax could reduce their balance sheet strength just as the prudential regulator was trying to make them stronger. In a meeting between Treasury officials and the CFOs of the four major banks plus Macquarie after the $1.5 billion-a-year tax was announced in the budget, Treasury confirmed the levy will be deductible from corporate income tax and will not generate franking credits. The meeting was attended by Commonwealth Bank of Australia CFO David Craig, Westpac Banking Corp CFO Peter King, National Australia Bank CFO Gary Lennon, ANZ Banking Group CFO Michelle Jablko and Macquarie CFO Patrick Upfold.
Harvey Norman Holdings Limited (HVN); JB Hi-Fi (JBH):
JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Murray has downplayed fears that Amazon’s arrival will crimp the retailer’s sales and decimate margins as prices come under pressure. In a report on Thursday, Citigroup slashed its long-term earnings forecasts for JB Hi-Fi more than 40 per cent and Harvey Norman more than 30 per cent after analysing the impact of Amazon Prime on major consumer electronics retailers in the United States, Britain and Germany. Citi analyst Bryan Raymond said the bank’s proprietary surveys indicated Amazon’s prices were 15 per cent lower than those at Australian retailers in three major categories – tablets, telco and headphones – and average selling prices would need to fall about 10 per cent to narrow the price gap to about 5 per cent. ‘‘This will likely drive 7 per cent to 11 per cent declines in sales productivity and about 180 basis points to 250 basis points declines in EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) margins over three to four years,’’ Mr Raymond said.
Macquarie Group Ltd (MQG):
NSW will reap nearly $3 billion from the sale of power distributor Endeavour Energy in a $7.6 billion deal Premier Gladys Berejiklian described as ‘‘outstanding’’. As revealed by Street Talk, Macquarie Group’s infrastructure arm and partners AMP Capital and two foreign funds snared a 50.4 per cent stake in the last of the ‘‘poles and wires’’ assets on offer. The opportunity to tap into the growth corridor of south-western Sydney has spurred what NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian described as an ‘‘outstanding’’ $7.6 billion deal for the sale of power distributor Endeavour Energy to a Macquarie Group-led consortium. As first reported in Street Talk, Macquarie’s infrastructure arm and partners AMP Capital and two foreign funds beat a rival consortium to snare a 50.4 per cent stake in Endeavour, the last of the ‘‘poles and wires’’ assets offered by the NSW government. With the privatisation of Western Power off the table under new West Australian Premier Mark McGowan and no sign of a change of policy in Queensland, Endeavour was the last evident opportunity to take control of a long-life, regulated asset providing the sort of stable returns cherished by infrastructure, pension and sovereign wealth funds. The transaction values the state’s third-biggest electricity distributor at more than $9 billion in total, including debt, beating the equivalent multiple of last year’s difficult sale of the largest network owner, Ausgrid.
(Source: AIMS)
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