Adelaide Brighton Limited (ABC):
Analysts at investment bank Citi yesterday signalled that Adelaide Brighton’s management is eager to acquire the $500 million cement business owned by its major shareholder, the Barro Group. In a research note, Citi said AdBri management could see “strategic rationale and potential synergies” in such a combination. However, Citi analysts said they believed the complex shareholding structure could pose problems. Responding to DataRoom’s overnight report, Adelaide Brighton said today it had proposed to Barro at various times a combination of the two companies’ respective businesses. “However, no agreement has been reached on any such transaction,” it told the ASX. DataRoom reported last month that investors wanted AdBri to buy Barro’s cement business.
Alinta Energy Group (AEJ):
Alinta Energy’s prospects of buying the Liddell power station have been shot down by analysts, with the station’s owner AGL Energy described as unlikely to part with the ageing facility. The Australian revealed earlier this week that Alinta was preparing to approach AGL with an offer to take control of Liddell with a view to extending the life of the plant beyond its current planned closure date of 2022. Alinta, which in January finalised its $1.1 billion purchase of the Loy Yang B brown coal power station in Victoria from Engie and Mitsui, believes Liddell could help with its efforts to grow its footprint in eastern Australia. But research from analysts at JPMorgan yesterday said it was unlikely the deal would ever eventuate due to a number of market and logistical reasons. Selling the power station to Alinta would hurt the wholesale prices that AGL can charge for energy from its other assets, the analysts said, while also helping a rival that is determined to eat into AGL’s market share.
ANZ Banking Group Ltd (ANZ):
ANZ has succumbed to tougher rules and regulation in its wealth management business, as the corporate watchdog slaps the bank with an enforceable undertaking just days ahead of royal commission hearings into its financial advice division. The nation’s third largest bank has been forced to pay $3 million as part of remediation which has already cost the bank almost $50m in refunds for charging fees to financial advice customers where no service was actually given. Kenneth Hayne’s royal commission will be grilling ANZ’s financial planners from RI Advice Group and Millennium 3 about dodgy financial advice and poor conduct by the advisers. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission today said it had accepted an enforceable undertaking from ANZ after an investigation found the bank failed to provide documented annual reviews to more than 10,000 of its “prime access” customers over seven years through 2013.
Blue Sky Alternative Investment Ltd (BLA):
US short-seller Glaucus Research says it has nothing to fear from the corporate regulator after more halving the market value of Brisbane-based fund manager Blue Sky Alternative Investments in just three trading days. Shares in Blue Sky (BLA) dropped another 20 per cent to $4.45 in early trade after shedding 33 per cent in heavy trade yesterday to close at $5.62. The falls came after Glaucus renewed its attack in a response to a Blue Sky rebuttal of an initial report issued on Wednesday last week. Blue Sky has taken a battering every day it has traded since Glaucus issued the report, but support for its shares appeared to evaporate yesterday afternoon after the company said it had nothing to add to an earlier response to the short-seller. With a market capitalisation of about $435 million, almost two- thirds has been wiped from the value of a company that was worth $1.1 billion just before Christmas, when its stock changed hands for as much as $14.70.
David Jones Limited (DJS):
Australian department store David Jones is believed to be once again revisiting a possible acquisition of Myer, as the market value of its rival yesterday touched a new low of $296 million. Myer’s share price had jumped 8.7 per cent to 37.5 cents at 11.35am (AEST) after closing at 35c yesterday. David Jones is believed to be working on whether it can take it out as a competitor by buying it. Advisers are thought to be engaged, and David Jones’ South African parent Woolworths is known to be close to Rothschild, the firm it engaged when it bought the Australian-listed department store in 2014 for $2.2 billion. A merged department store entity would offer more clout negotiating rent reductions with landlords such as Westfield shopping centre owner Scentre at a time when much of Myer’s future success relies on its ability to extricate itself from large lease liabilities.
MG Unit Trust (MGC):
The majority of Murray Goulburn shareholders have voted in favour of the company’s $1.3 billion sale to Canadian dairy giant Saputo at an Extraordinary General Meeting this morning. Nearly 98 per cent of shareholder votes cast by poll and nearly 96 per cent of votes by proxy voted to approve the deal, which is now expected to be completed by May 1 this year. It comes one day after Australia’s competition watchdog approved the acquisition following Saputo’s offer to sell Murray Goulburn’s (MGC) one billion litre Koroit facility. Bids for the Koroit plant have come from rival processors including Bega and the Midfield-Louis Dreyfus partnership, along with Chinese bidders.
(Source: AIMS)
Latest comments