BHP Billiton Limited (BHP) AND Newcrest Mining Limited (NCM):
BHP has signalled a potential bidding war with Newcrest Mining for control of Brisbanebased copper miner Solgold after buying a 6.1 per cent stake nearly two years after it first attempted to gain exposure to the Ecuador focused explorer. The world’s largest miner paid about £27.3 million ($48.8m) for 103.1m shares in a deal with Guyana Goldfields which gives it access to the prospective Cascabel copper-gold discovery in northwest Ecuador, 85 per owned by the London-listed SolGold. BHP (BHP) was rebuffed in October 2016 in its efforts to take a 10 per cent equity stake with the junior instead favouring gold producer Newcrest (NCM) in the arm wrestle to win a spot on its register. Newcrest now owns a 14.5 per cent stake in SolGold. BHP said the SolGold investment would hand it exposure to a high quality copper exploration project in Ecuador which the miner considers a highly prospective location. “Consistent with our positive long-term outlook, copper is a key exploration focus for BHP as we seek to replenish our resource base and grow this important business,” BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said in a statement today.
Investa Office Fund (IOF):
The long-running battle for Investa Office Fund is at last coming to a head, with the property unit of Canadian pension fund OMERS presenting a takeover proposal for the Australian-listed office landlord that tops a $3.26 billion offer from Blackstone. The latest $3.3bn approach, flagged in The Australian’s DataRoom, has been set at $5.50 per security, or 15.15c above an offer from the US private equity group, once a distribution is taken into account. The offer puts the heat in Australia’s commercial property market on display, with the scene now set for a bruising battle between the pair for IOF, which controls an empire of $4.4bn worth of towers, including a slice of Sydney’s Deutsche Bank Place. IOF’s board labelled the proposal unsolicited, non-binding, indicative and conditional and it is yet to recommend a course of action on the latest offer after earlier backing the Blackstone bid. But that deal now hangs in the balance as OMERS’ real estate vehicle, Oxford Property Group, races to firm up its bid by winning approval from its investment committee, put debt in place and win access to due diligence from IOF. While the Canadian group’s bid must deal with these hurdles, it came over the top of a sweetened Blackstone offer and signalled that Oxford is making a serious play for Australian real -estate.
IOOF Holdings Limited (IFL):
The chairman of IOOF’s board remuneration committee, Allan Griffiths, has hit back at allegations by the prudential regulator that chief executive Chris Kelaher doesn’t understand his responsibilities under super¬annuation law, describing the remarks as “very disappointing”. Mr Griffiths, the former chief executive for Australia of British insurance giant Aviva, told The Australian the IOOF board disagreed with a severe attack on Mr Kelaher’s competence launched by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority in submissions to the financial services royal commission released on Monday. In its submissions, APRA counsel Robert Dick SC said that on the basis of evidence before the commission Mr Kelaher “demonstrated a failure to understand the covenants under the SIS (Superannuation Industry Supervision) Act and obligations of a trustee under trust law”. In addition, Mr Kelaher made an “untrue” statement in a letter to APRA last year, Mr Dick told the commission. IOOF has told the commission no findings should be made against it. The stoush over Mr Kelaher’s competence comes as IOOF prepares for an additional 770,000 clients as part of its $1 billion takeover of ANZ’s OnePath business, amid warnings from APRA boss Wayne Byres that the industry needs to regain trust.
Macquarie Group Ltd (MQG):
Deutsche Craigs, First NZ Capital Group and Macquarie New Zealand were in the market on Wednesday, seeking to offload 15.6 per cent, or 95 million shares, of Oceania Healthcare. The selldown was on behalf of Macquarie Group, which controls roughly half the register of the dual-listed aged care company. The brokers set a floor price of $NZ1.08, a 5.3 per cent discount to the last close, according to terms sent to fund managers. Bids will be taken in 1¢ increments and the bookbuild will close at 4pm Sydney time. "Macquarie Securities (NZ) Limited is a related party of the offeror and has been engaged on arms' length terms," the term sheet said. Macquarie would retain about a 42 per cent stake on completion of the sell down. Macquarie owns the stake via a bunch of the group's infrastructure and specialised asset management funds. The group took Oceania Healthcare to the ASX and NZX boards in May 2017, having earlier tried a few times to find a trade buyer will to buy the company. Fund managers and equities desks had been watching for a sell down from Macquarie, and Wednesday's trade is expected to clear at least some of that overhang.
Magnis Resources Ltd (MNS):
Aggressive Chinese developer Aqualand has taken a near 5 per cent stake in listed junior miner Magnis Resources — a consortium member of Bill Moss’s proposed $2 billion Townsville battery factory — as it moves to tap new energy supplies for a -future $5bn residential development pipeline. Aqualand investment arm AL Capital has made an $11.1 million cornerstone investment in Magnis through a placement of 30 million shares. Aqualand chief executive Wayne Mo said the group ¬believed Magnis’s battery projects and technology were well advanced and capable of “global scaling”. “The innovation of these batteries and technologies will support advances in multiple broad applications in society for the ¬future,” Mr Mo said. “ALC is closely assessing the energy requirements of current and future communities and it regards lithium-ion battery technology as an energy source that has the capacity to deliver lower cost energy to these sites,” the company said.
Transurban Group (TCL):
Transurban shares slid as much as 2.3 per cent in early trade after it announced the successful completion of the institutional component of its $4.2 billion entitlement offer, which will fund the acquisition of a stake in Sydney’s WestConnex motorway project. In a statement to the market, Transurban (TCL) said the institutional entitlement offer raised gross proceeds of approximately $3bn, and will result in the issue of about 278 million new shares. “The acquisition of a 51 per cent equity stake in WestConnex is a milestone for Transurban and its consortium partners,” Transurban chief executive Scott Charlston said. “We thank our investors for supporting this transaction and look forward to working with the NSW government as our partner for WestConnex.” The new shares to be issued will be allotted on September 13 and trading is expected to commence the same day. Transurban, Australia’s largest toll road operator, said the institutional entitlement offer attracted “strong” demand, with about 96 per cent of entitlements available taken up. It comes after the competition regulator cleared Transurban’s bid for a 51 per cent stake in the $16bn WestConnex project. NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet then announced Transurban and its consortium partners had beaten a rival bidder and would pay $9.26bn for the stake.
Westpac Banking Corp (WBC):
Westpac will pay a record $35 million fine for failing to properly assess whether thousands of people could afford to repay their home loans. The bank admitted breaching responsible lending laws when providing home loans and agreed to the civil penalty to settle court action by the corporate regulator. The case centred on Westpac's home loan assessment process between December 2011 and March 2015, during which time about 260,000 home loans were approved by the bank's automated decision system. Westpac admitted about 10,500 home loans should not have been automatically approved and should have been referred to a credit officer to be manually assessed before any approval. The settlement was announced on Tuesday, a day after a three-week trial was due to begin in the Federal Court in Sydney. If approved by the Federal Court, the $35 million fine will be the largest civil penalty awarded under the National Credit Act and nearly double the previous record.
(Source: AIMS)
BHP has signalled a potential bidding war with Newcrest Mining for control of Brisbanebased copper miner Solgold after buying a 6.1 per cent stake nearly two years after it first attempted to gain exposure to the Ecuador focused explorer. The world’s largest miner paid about £27.3 million ($48.8m) for 103.1m shares in a deal with Guyana Goldfields which gives it access to the prospective Cascabel copper-gold discovery in northwest Ecuador, 85 per owned by the London-listed SolGold. BHP (BHP) was rebuffed in October 2016 in its efforts to take a 10 per cent equity stake with the junior instead favouring gold producer Newcrest (NCM) in the arm wrestle to win a spot on its register. Newcrest now owns a 14.5 per cent stake in SolGold. BHP said the SolGold investment would hand it exposure to a high quality copper exploration project in Ecuador which the miner considers a highly prospective location. “Consistent with our positive long-term outlook, copper is a key exploration focus for BHP as we seek to replenish our resource base and grow this important business,” BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said in a statement today.
Investa Office Fund (IOF):
The long-running battle for Investa Office Fund is at last coming to a head, with the property unit of Canadian pension fund OMERS presenting a takeover proposal for the Australian-listed office landlord that tops a $3.26 billion offer from Blackstone. The latest $3.3bn approach, flagged in The Australian’s DataRoom, has been set at $5.50 per security, or 15.15c above an offer from the US private equity group, once a distribution is taken into account. The offer puts the heat in Australia’s commercial property market on display, with the scene now set for a bruising battle between the pair for IOF, which controls an empire of $4.4bn worth of towers, including a slice of Sydney’s Deutsche Bank Place. IOF’s board labelled the proposal unsolicited, non-binding, indicative and conditional and it is yet to recommend a course of action on the latest offer after earlier backing the Blackstone bid. But that deal now hangs in the balance as OMERS’ real estate vehicle, Oxford Property Group, races to firm up its bid by winning approval from its investment committee, put debt in place and win access to due diligence from IOF. While the Canadian group’s bid must deal with these hurdles, it came over the top of a sweetened Blackstone offer and signalled that Oxford is making a serious play for Australian real -estate.
IOOF Holdings Limited (IFL):
The chairman of IOOF’s board remuneration committee, Allan Griffiths, has hit back at allegations by the prudential regulator that chief executive Chris Kelaher doesn’t understand his responsibilities under super¬annuation law, describing the remarks as “very disappointing”. Mr Griffiths, the former chief executive for Australia of British insurance giant Aviva, told The Australian the IOOF board disagreed with a severe attack on Mr Kelaher’s competence launched by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority in submissions to the financial services royal commission released on Monday. In its submissions, APRA counsel Robert Dick SC said that on the basis of evidence before the commission Mr Kelaher “demonstrated a failure to understand the covenants under the SIS (Superannuation Industry Supervision) Act and obligations of a trustee under trust law”. In addition, Mr Kelaher made an “untrue” statement in a letter to APRA last year, Mr Dick told the commission. IOOF has told the commission no findings should be made against it. The stoush over Mr Kelaher’s competence comes as IOOF prepares for an additional 770,000 clients as part of its $1 billion takeover of ANZ’s OnePath business, amid warnings from APRA boss Wayne Byres that the industry needs to regain trust.
Macquarie Group Ltd (MQG):
Deutsche Craigs, First NZ Capital Group and Macquarie New Zealand were in the market on Wednesday, seeking to offload 15.6 per cent, or 95 million shares, of Oceania Healthcare. The selldown was on behalf of Macquarie Group, which controls roughly half the register of the dual-listed aged care company. The brokers set a floor price of $NZ1.08, a 5.3 per cent discount to the last close, according to terms sent to fund managers. Bids will be taken in 1¢ increments and the bookbuild will close at 4pm Sydney time. "Macquarie Securities (NZ) Limited is a related party of the offeror and has been engaged on arms' length terms," the term sheet said. Macquarie would retain about a 42 per cent stake on completion of the sell down. Macquarie owns the stake via a bunch of the group's infrastructure and specialised asset management funds. The group took Oceania Healthcare to the ASX and NZX boards in May 2017, having earlier tried a few times to find a trade buyer will to buy the company. Fund managers and equities desks had been watching for a sell down from Macquarie, and Wednesday's trade is expected to clear at least some of that overhang.
Magnis Resources Ltd (MNS):
Aggressive Chinese developer Aqualand has taken a near 5 per cent stake in listed junior miner Magnis Resources — a consortium member of Bill Moss’s proposed $2 billion Townsville battery factory — as it moves to tap new energy supplies for a -future $5bn residential development pipeline. Aqualand investment arm AL Capital has made an $11.1 million cornerstone investment in Magnis through a placement of 30 million shares. Aqualand chief executive Wayne Mo said the group ¬believed Magnis’s battery projects and technology were well advanced and capable of “global scaling”. “The innovation of these batteries and technologies will support advances in multiple broad applications in society for the ¬future,” Mr Mo said. “ALC is closely assessing the energy requirements of current and future communities and it regards lithium-ion battery technology as an energy source that has the capacity to deliver lower cost energy to these sites,” the company said.
Transurban Group (TCL):
Transurban shares slid as much as 2.3 per cent in early trade after it announced the successful completion of the institutional component of its $4.2 billion entitlement offer, which will fund the acquisition of a stake in Sydney’s WestConnex motorway project. In a statement to the market, Transurban (TCL) said the institutional entitlement offer raised gross proceeds of approximately $3bn, and will result in the issue of about 278 million new shares. “The acquisition of a 51 per cent equity stake in WestConnex is a milestone for Transurban and its consortium partners,” Transurban chief executive Scott Charlston said. “We thank our investors for supporting this transaction and look forward to working with the NSW government as our partner for WestConnex.” The new shares to be issued will be allotted on September 13 and trading is expected to commence the same day. Transurban, Australia’s largest toll road operator, said the institutional entitlement offer attracted “strong” demand, with about 96 per cent of entitlements available taken up. It comes after the competition regulator cleared Transurban’s bid for a 51 per cent stake in the $16bn WestConnex project. NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet then announced Transurban and its consortium partners had beaten a rival bidder and would pay $9.26bn for the stake.
Westpac Banking Corp (WBC):
Westpac will pay a record $35 million fine for failing to properly assess whether thousands of people could afford to repay their home loans. The bank admitted breaching responsible lending laws when providing home loans and agreed to the civil penalty to settle court action by the corporate regulator. The case centred on Westpac's home loan assessment process between December 2011 and March 2015, during which time about 260,000 home loans were approved by the bank's automated decision system. Westpac admitted about 10,500 home loans should not have been automatically approved and should have been referred to a credit officer to be manually assessed before any approval. The settlement was announced on Tuesday, a day after a three-week trial was due to begin in the Federal Court in Sydney. If approved by the Federal Court, the $35 million fine will be the largest civil penalty awarded under the National Credit Act and nearly double the previous record.
(Source: AIMS)
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