AUSTRALIA MARKET
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ); Commonwealth Bank of Australia; National Australia Bank Limited (NAB); Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC):
The government’s bank tax is at odds with regulators’ strategy of building safer banks because it creates disincentives to fund high-quality loans and longer-term borrowings and to provide liquidity to the financial system, the big banks have warned. With Treasury unable to answer key questions on the $1.5 billion a year tax, the banks made submissions to Treasury yesterday showing the challenges of enacting the tax by July 1. Commonwealth Bank of Australia raised the prospect of ‘‘implementation failure’’ if the legislation was not pushed back to September 30.
BHP Billiton Limited（BHP）:
BHP Billiton’s $10 million rebrand is ‘‘strategically smart but executed really badly’’, according to top Australian advertising executive Dee Madigan. The name Billiton and three ‘‘blobs’’ have been dropped from BHP’s branding as the mining giant attempts to emphasise its Australian identity and move on from its tainted reputation after the Samarco mine disaster and investigations by the Australian Taxation Office. The company is also facing a push by activist investor Elliott Management to abandon its Australian sharemarket listing. The BHP Billiton moniker was adopted in 2001 when BHP merged with South African giant Billiton. Ms Madigan, executive creative director of advertising agency Campaign Edge and who is known for appearing on ABC TV’s Gruen Transfer , praises the mining giant’s efforts but says the ‘‘parochial’’ campaign misses the mark.‘‘Even people who support the mining sector don’t want to be reminded that it creates ugly big holes in the ground and yet the ad is just showing them over and over again,’’ she said on Monday.
Myer Holdings Limited (MYR):
The Myer Family Company has lured former National Australia Bank and JPMorgan executive Nicholas Lipscombe to head its NSW operations. StreetTalk understands the family office tapped Lipscombe as it continues to grow its operations in NSW. It opened a Sydney office more than a decade ago. According to LinkedIn, Lipscombe has long-standing experience in the financial services sector and most recently had a five-year stint at NAB as an executive looking after ultra-high net worth customers. Prior to that, he was at JPMorgan as an executive director for client management and delivery in the Asia Pacific region. The Myer Family Company has more than 230 clients and has had a string of changes at the top over the past 18 months. Danielle Press was appointed chief executive mid-2016.
Qantas Airways Limited:
Moody’s, which restored the airline’s investment grade credit rating a year ago following an earnings turnaround, said on Monday it was upgrading its rating to Baa2, with a ‘‘stable’’ outlook, from the previous Baa3 rating. ‘‘Qantas has a domestic capacity share of 62 per cent and domestic EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) market share of 86 per cent. With its greater scale, far higher margins and a significantly stronger balance sheet, Qantas is in a very strong competitive position,’’ Moody’s said. It expected Qantas’ credit metrics to remain ‘‘fairly stable’’ for the next 12 to 18 months but the upgrade reflected the Australian market dynamics and double-digit growth in frequent flyer earnings. Qantas shares have jumped 20 per cent in the past month. The airline upgraded earnings forecasts in early May, tipping a full-year underlying profit between $1.35 billion to $1.4 billion. This will be the second-largest profit in the airline’s history after last year’s record result. Qantas shares rose 3¢ to $4.77 on Monday.
Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC) :
Westpac has gone live with the first stages of a significant technology shift to move its core processes off its own premises and into the cloud, a plan that could save millions a year and give it greater flexibility than its rivals. The move to push its key tech systems off its own infrastructure on to a so-called private cloud built and run by IBM is a major change for the bank, and a bold move in an industry that has been slower than most fully to embrace the trend due to regulatory, operational and security concerns. The Australian Financial Review understands it has already moved two core banking processes to the cloud since the end of March, and intends to have moved about 20 more within the next eight months. It estimates internally that 70 per cent of its business applications will move to these cloud environments over the next 10 years.
(Source: AIMS)
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ); Commonwealth Bank of Australia; National Australia Bank Limited (NAB); Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC):
The government’s bank tax is at odds with regulators’ strategy of building safer banks because it creates disincentives to fund high-quality loans and longer-term borrowings and to provide liquidity to the financial system, the big banks have warned. With Treasury unable to answer key questions on the $1.5 billion a year tax, the banks made submissions to Treasury yesterday showing the challenges of enacting the tax by July 1. Commonwealth Bank of Australia raised the prospect of ‘‘implementation failure’’ if the legislation was not pushed back to September 30.
BHP Billiton Limited（BHP）:
BHP Billiton’s $10 million rebrand is ‘‘strategically smart but executed really badly’’, according to top Australian advertising executive Dee Madigan. The name Billiton and three ‘‘blobs’’ have been dropped from BHP’s branding as the mining giant attempts to emphasise its Australian identity and move on from its tainted reputation after the Samarco mine disaster and investigations by the Australian Taxation Office. The company is also facing a push by activist investor Elliott Management to abandon its Australian sharemarket listing. The BHP Billiton moniker was adopted in 2001 when BHP merged with South African giant Billiton. Ms Madigan, executive creative director of advertising agency Campaign Edge and who is known for appearing on ABC TV’s Gruen Transfer , praises the mining giant’s efforts but says the ‘‘parochial’’ campaign misses the mark.‘‘Even people who support the mining sector don’t want to be reminded that it creates ugly big holes in the ground and yet the ad is just showing them over and over again,’’ she said on Monday.
Myer Holdings Limited (MYR):
The Myer Family Company has lured former National Australia Bank and JPMorgan executive Nicholas Lipscombe to head its NSW operations. StreetTalk understands the family office tapped Lipscombe as it continues to grow its operations in NSW. It opened a Sydney office more than a decade ago. According to LinkedIn, Lipscombe has long-standing experience in the financial services sector and most recently had a five-year stint at NAB as an executive looking after ultra-high net worth customers. Prior to that, he was at JPMorgan as an executive director for client management and delivery in the Asia Pacific region. The Myer Family Company has more than 230 clients and has had a string of changes at the top over the past 18 months. Danielle Press was appointed chief executive mid-2016.
Qantas Airways Limited:
Moody’s, which restored the airline’s investment grade credit rating a year ago following an earnings turnaround, said on Monday it was upgrading its rating to Baa2, with a ‘‘stable’’ outlook, from the previous Baa3 rating. ‘‘Qantas has a domestic capacity share of 62 per cent and domestic EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) market share of 86 per cent. With its greater scale, far higher margins and a significantly stronger balance sheet, Qantas is in a very strong competitive position,’’ Moody’s said. It expected Qantas’ credit metrics to remain ‘‘fairly stable’’ for the next 12 to 18 months but the upgrade reflected the Australian market dynamics and double-digit growth in frequent flyer earnings. Qantas shares have jumped 20 per cent in the past month. The airline upgraded earnings forecasts in early May, tipping a full-year underlying profit between $1.35 billion to $1.4 billion. This will be the second-largest profit in the airline’s history after last year’s record result. Qantas shares rose 3¢ to $4.77 on Monday.
Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC) :
Westpac has gone live with the first stages of a significant technology shift to move its core processes off its own premises and into the cloud, a plan that could save millions a year and give it greater flexibility than its rivals. The move to push its key tech systems off its own infrastructure on to a so-called private cloud built and run by IBM is a major change for the bank, and a bold move in an industry that has been slower than most fully to embrace the trend due to regulatory, operational and security concerns. The Australian Financial Review understands it has already moved two core banking processes to the cloud since the end of March, and intends to have moved about 20 more within the next eight months. It estimates internally that 70 per cent of its business applications will move to these cloud environments over the next 10 years.
(Source: AIMS)
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