BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP);
Three current BHP Billiton directors will battle it out this week to replace outgoing chairman Jac Nasser in a secret vote to decide who will lead the Australian mining giant. Boardroom doyen Lindsay Maxsted, industry veteran Malcolm Broomhead and former Amcor boss Ken MacKenzie are all speculated to be vying for the coveted role. Fellow BHP director Carolyn Hewson is said to have withdrawn. Earlier in the year there had been speculation BHP was eyeing a number of external candidates, including Dow Chemical’s Andrew Liveris and former Westpac chief Gail Kelly. Former BHP chairman Don Argus said the ‘‘integrity of the process’’ was critical in selecting the new chairman. When BHP last went through the process in 2009, when Nasser was chosen to replace Argus, each candidate made a final presentation to the board. Senior independent director Baroness Shriti Vadera has led the succession process. Sources said this time around there would be no formal presentations. Former CEO of packaging giant Amcor, Mr MacKenzie is firming as a potential favourite, despite being relatively young at 52 and is seen as a relative cleanskin with BHP his only public board position. The first thing that will happen in Santiago is there will be a Frenchstyle run-off that will pare down the candidates to a preferred pair. When BHP Billiton’s board gathers in the Chilean capital of Santiago this week it will enter territory both familiar and very new. Chile, of course, is host to the bigger and best parts of the company’s pan-Pacific copper estate, so the city that sits so spectacularly in the shadows of the Andes is a destination routine for everyone who is anyone at BHP. But that Santiago will host the ballot that will name BHP’s next chairman represents a unique moment in the history of Australia’s global miner. And the ballot to play out in Chile later this week will test a process that has been subtly but broadly refined since the election that introduced incumbent Jac Nasser as the successor to the man who did so much to craft the world’s biggest diversified resources house, inaugural DLC chairman Don Argus. That handover was the result of a ballot of two that followed a formal presentation from each of Nasser and fellow director, former Esso Australia boss and Commonwealth Bank chair, John Schubert. The ballot was secret, the returning officer was BHP Billiton auditor, KPMG, and the numbers that confirmed Nasser’s place in the miner’s future were never disclose .
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA):
Commonwealth Bank of Australia is turning the screws on borrowers again with tough new tests for assessing loans. The guidelines will include a 30 per cent servicing loading for a borrowers’ existing business, investment or home loans from another lender. ‘‘This is to ensure we maintain our responsible standards,’’ a CBA spokesman said about the new rules introduced on Saturday. For existing owner-occupier, investment home loan, line of credit and business loan repayments, there will be an interest rate buffer of the higher of either 7.25 per cent, or the current product interest rate plus 2.25 per cent.
Charter Hall Group (CHC):
Listed property funds manager Charter Hall Group is in early talks to buy Westpac Banking Corp’s infrastructure investment arm, Hastings Funds Management. Street Talk understands Charter Hall, Westpac and Hastings have held a number of ‘‘soft’’ talks as they explore a potential transaction, and these will heat up again this week with management presentations at Hastings’ Melbourne headquarters. Sources said all three sides of the potential deal – Charter Hall, Westpac and Hastings – were happy to progress talks only slowly, with negotiations centred on the right cultural fit and relationships. Listed property funds manager Charter Hall Group is in early stage talks to buy Westpac Banking Corp’s infrastructure investment arm, Hastings Funds Management. Street Talk understands Charter Hall, Westpac and Hastings have held a number of rounds of ‘‘soft’’ talks as they explore a potential transaction, and the discussions will heat up again this week with management presentations at Hastings’ Melbourne headquarters.
Rio Tinto Limted (RIO);
Rio Tinto’s phased approach to developing its Silvergrass iron ore operation in the Pilbara is allowing the final stage of the project to be brought into production quickly and at a low capital cost. Construction of the $US338 million ($448 million) final stage of Silvergrass, the largest iron ore development under way in Western Australia’s Pilbara region since Gina Rinehart’s $10 billion Roy Hill iron ore mine, is about 35 per cent complete. The 10 million tonne per annum final stage is expected to commence production in the fourth quarter of 2017 and will bring Silvergrass, which will play a key role in maintaining the quality of Rio’s blended product, to a total 20 million tonnes a year. The big-ticket items under construction are an on-site crusher and a ninekilometre long conveyor, which will connect the mining area to existing processing facilities at Rio’s nearby Nammuldi operation.
Treasury Wine Estates Limited (TWE);
Designs boosting the performance of one of SA’s strongest industries, wine, dominated the state architecture awards on Saturday. Denton Corker Marshall’s redevelopment of Treasury Wine Estate’s Penfolds Magill Estate in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs, the traditional home of the flagship Penfolds Grange wine, won the top awards for commercial and interior architecture. The project moved the cellar door to the centre of the five-hectare site, created a new Magill Estate Kitchen and built new tasting rooms into the oldest cellars of the 171-year-old winery. ‘‘Part cellar door, part cafe and part museum, the project is a blend that will achieve what it set out to accomplish – to position the facility as an internationally recognised tourist destination for SA,’’ the jury citation read. A separate project by Grieve Gillett Andersen architects to convert a country house in Woodside, in the Adelaide Hills, into a new cellar door for winemaker Petaluma won a commendation in the same category.
(Source: AIMS)
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