AMP Limited (AMP), AND Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA):
Law firm Slater & Gordon is preparing a series of class actions against superannuation funds owned by the major banks and AMP, alleging customers are owed more than $1 billion because of excessive fees and payment of below-market interest rates on cash holdings. The law firm alleges that millions of super fund members could be eligible to join the actions, with Commonwealth Bank and AMP the first targets in a claim worth more than $500 million. Head of class actions Ben Hardwick said the royal commission had revealed that some AMP super customers were getting negative returns on their cash investment option.
APA Group (APA):
Hong Kong’s CK Infrastructure has won competition approval to buy Australia’s APA Group in a $13 billion cash bid that is set to create a pipeline giant controlling major infrastructure on both sides of the country. APA shares rose 2.35 per cent to $10.00 in early trading on the ASX after the approval. An undertaking by the bid group, led by CKI, to sell assets in Western Australia where both CKI and APA (APA) have competing pipelines addressed concerns about the merger, according to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission. The focus will now shift to gaining approval for the deal from the Foreign Investment Review Board at a time of intense political scrutiny over high gas prices and potential supply shortages for users. APA’s securities have traded below the $11 a share bid price since it was made because of the regulatory uncertainty. Yesterday, the stock rose 4c to $9.78.
Clearview Wealth Ltd (CVW):
The corporate watchdog is weighing up “the appropriate response” after independent life insurer ClearView Wealth admitted to breaching criminal laws more than 300,000 times and confessed to a range of unconscionable and deceptive conduct. Although the Australian Securities & Investments Commission forced ClearView to shut down its disastrous “direct” life insurance business, where outbound call centres targeted poor Australians with useless policies they couldn’t afford, and secured a $1.5 million remediation program, the regulator has not taken any legal action or threatened its financial services licence. ClearView chief risk officer Gregory Martin admitted to the royal commission yesterday that the Sydney-based company engaged in unconscionable and misleading and deceptive conduct, that it had breached the duty of utmost good faith, that its processes led to customer detriment, that it contravened its obligation to act honestly, fairly and efficiently, that it failed to train staff in compliance, that it failed to comply with financial services laws and that it put in place remuneration and incentive structures that conflicted with customers’ best interests. ClearView shares closed down 7 per cent to their lowest point in more than two years yesterday.
Freedom Insurance Group Ltd (FIG):
Freedom Insurance is planning to snub the corporate regulator by continuing to push sales of its predatory funeral insurance policies through its outbound call centres, a process that has been banned by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission under threat of legal action. In a gruelling day of public hearings, Freedom chief operating officer Craig Orton defended his decision not to inform the royal commission of significant changes to the company’s businesses such as no longer selling some products through outbound calls until the eve of his appearance at Melbourne’s Federal Court yesterday. Despite deciding to permanently carve off four out of the six policy types it sold at 3pm on Monday, it emerged that Freedom had not recorded the decision in any internal company documents. Freedom made the snap decision to junk its sales of accidental death insurance, accidental injury insurance, trauma insurance and life insurance just hours before it faced brutal scrutiny from senior counsel assisting Rowena Orr QC. However, the company decided to risk the ire of ASIC by continuing to sell funeral insurance policies despite the regulator’s instruction last week for companies to cease the sale of life insurance through outbound call centres under threat of legal action. It will also continue to sell accidental death insurance policies through “inbound” calls, despite ASIC threatening to ban the product. Mr Orton said funeral plans accounted for about 85 per cent of Freedom’s business.
HT&E Ltd (HT1):
Media and entertainment group Here, There & Everywhere has lost its second chairman in less than three months, with interim chair Robert Kaye resigning abruptly. Mr Kaye took over from outgoing chairman Peter Cosgrove at the end of June to allow the company - formerly called APN News and Media before changing its name last year - to find a new chairman. HT&E - which sold its Adshel advertising business to oOh!media for $570 million recently - didn’t give an explanation for Kaye’s resignation, which takes immediate effect.
Macquarie Media Ltd (MRN):
Broadcaster Alan Jones and Macquarie Media have lost a defamation case brought by Toowoomba's Wagner family over deaths from the 2011 Queensland floods, with a Supreme Court judge ordering them to pay a total in $3.75 million. Justice Peter Flanagan said the defamatory imputations published by Mr Jones on his radio shows in Sydney and Brisbane were "extremely serious and of the gravest kind", including the claims the Wagner family and their quarry was responsible for the deaths of 12 people, including two children, in the Grantham floods in early 2011. Justice Flanagan said the multiple reports that claimed the Wagner family quarry was responsible for the flood deaths were clearly defamatory. Justice Flanagan ordered Macquarie Media, majority owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of The Australian Financial Review, to pay each of the Wagner brothers - Denis, John, Neil and Joe - $750,000 each plus interest of $78,102.74 in interest for the broadcasting of the comments on Sydney station 2GB and $100,000 each plus interest of $10,643.84 for the broadcast on Brisbane radio station 4BC. Total damages for each of the brothers was $938,746.58 for a total damages bill of $3,754,986.32.
Myer Holdings Ltd (MYR):
Myer has plunged to a $486 million loss after cutting prices to clear excess stock, slashing the value of goodwill and brand names and exiting stores, but has reached agreement with bankers to refinance debt and relax lending covenants. The full-year loss followed a $476 million loss in the first half, when Myer wrote down the value of goodwill and brand names by $515 million and booked $14 million in redundancy and store exit costs. Underlying net profit before impairment charges and restructuring costs in the year ended July 28 slumped 52.2 per cent to $32.5 million - implying a loss of $7.6 million in the July half - as rising costs of doing business and higher depreciation offset a slight improvement in gross margins. Earnings before interest and tax fell 48 per cent to $55.4 million. This compares with EBIT of $236 million in 2009, Myer's first year as a listed company. The underlying result fell slightly short of market forecasts. Analysts had been expecting full-year underlying net profit around $33.1 million and underlying EBIT around $57 million. Sales fell 3.2 per cent to $3.1 billion, with same-store sales falling 2.7 per cent over the year and by 2.4 per cent in the second-half.
SEEK Limited (SEK):
Seek chief executive Andrew Bassat says his company is actively preparing for the further incursion of tech giants Google and Facebook into the online recruitment market as it makes Australia a new global hub for the development of new technology products. Mr Bassat said the key to Seek’s future success against the global tech giants would be to continue increasing the value-added proposition for its customers, leaving its rivals to fight over the more commoditised parts of the online recruitment market. The company’s shares recently reached an all-time high despite it booking writedowns on some of its troubled Latin American businesses in its latest annual results. In the results the company revealed that higher technology spending over the past three years had underpinned its strong revenue growth in 2018. It also revealed plans to spend $35 million to $40m in 2019, investing in early-stage ventures that would boost revenues in five or more years from now.
Transurban Group (TCL), AND Lendlease Group (LLC):
Infrastructure developer Lendlease is still unable to confirm the opening date for Sydney's new $3 billion tollroad NorthConnex, underscoring the complexity of big tunnelling projects as Transurban prepares to take over the running of Australia's largest tollroad, WestConnex. The new tollroad, which will be operated by Transurban, was due to be completed by the end of 2019. Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton first flagged potential delays at the tollroad company's annual results in early August, saying the delivery timetable for NorthConnex was "under review" but that he expected the project to remain within budget. A month later, Lendlease says it cannot comment on when the tollroad will be finished, telling the The Australian Financial Review that there was "no additional update" on the project's completion date. Transurban also declined to comment, saying that delivery was still under review.
(Source: AIMS)
Law firm Slater & Gordon is preparing a series of class actions against superannuation funds owned by the major banks and AMP, alleging customers are owed more than $1 billion because of excessive fees and payment of below-market interest rates on cash holdings. The law firm alleges that millions of super fund members could be eligible to join the actions, with Commonwealth Bank and AMP the first targets in a claim worth more than $500 million. Head of class actions Ben Hardwick said the royal commission had revealed that some AMP super customers were getting negative returns on their cash investment option.
APA Group (APA):
Hong Kong’s CK Infrastructure has won competition approval to buy Australia’s APA Group in a $13 billion cash bid that is set to create a pipeline giant controlling major infrastructure on both sides of the country. APA shares rose 2.35 per cent to $10.00 in early trading on the ASX after the approval. An undertaking by the bid group, led by CKI, to sell assets in Western Australia where both CKI and APA (APA) have competing pipelines addressed concerns about the merger, according to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission. The focus will now shift to gaining approval for the deal from the Foreign Investment Review Board at a time of intense political scrutiny over high gas prices and potential supply shortages for users. APA’s securities have traded below the $11 a share bid price since it was made because of the regulatory uncertainty. Yesterday, the stock rose 4c to $9.78.
Clearview Wealth Ltd (CVW):
The corporate watchdog is weighing up “the appropriate response” after independent life insurer ClearView Wealth admitted to breaching criminal laws more than 300,000 times and confessed to a range of unconscionable and deceptive conduct. Although the Australian Securities & Investments Commission forced ClearView to shut down its disastrous “direct” life insurance business, where outbound call centres targeted poor Australians with useless policies they couldn’t afford, and secured a $1.5 million remediation program, the regulator has not taken any legal action or threatened its financial services licence. ClearView chief risk officer Gregory Martin admitted to the royal commission yesterday that the Sydney-based company engaged in unconscionable and misleading and deceptive conduct, that it had breached the duty of utmost good faith, that its processes led to customer detriment, that it contravened its obligation to act honestly, fairly and efficiently, that it failed to train staff in compliance, that it failed to comply with financial services laws and that it put in place remuneration and incentive structures that conflicted with customers’ best interests. ClearView shares closed down 7 per cent to their lowest point in more than two years yesterday.
Freedom Insurance Group Ltd (FIG):
Freedom Insurance is planning to snub the corporate regulator by continuing to push sales of its predatory funeral insurance policies through its outbound call centres, a process that has been banned by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission under threat of legal action. In a gruelling day of public hearings, Freedom chief operating officer Craig Orton defended his decision not to inform the royal commission of significant changes to the company’s businesses such as no longer selling some products through outbound calls until the eve of his appearance at Melbourne’s Federal Court yesterday. Despite deciding to permanently carve off four out of the six policy types it sold at 3pm on Monday, it emerged that Freedom had not recorded the decision in any internal company documents. Freedom made the snap decision to junk its sales of accidental death insurance, accidental injury insurance, trauma insurance and life insurance just hours before it faced brutal scrutiny from senior counsel assisting Rowena Orr QC. However, the company decided to risk the ire of ASIC by continuing to sell funeral insurance policies despite the regulator’s instruction last week for companies to cease the sale of life insurance through outbound call centres under threat of legal action. It will also continue to sell accidental death insurance policies through “inbound” calls, despite ASIC threatening to ban the product. Mr Orton said funeral plans accounted for about 85 per cent of Freedom’s business.
HT&E Ltd (HT1):
Media and entertainment group Here, There & Everywhere has lost its second chairman in less than three months, with interim chair Robert Kaye resigning abruptly. Mr Kaye took over from outgoing chairman Peter Cosgrove at the end of June to allow the company - formerly called APN News and Media before changing its name last year - to find a new chairman. HT&E - which sold its Adshel advertising business to oOh!media for $570 million recently - didn’t give an explanation for Kaye’s resignation, which takes immediate effect.
Macquarie Media Ltd (MRN):
Broadcaster Alan Jones and Macquarie Media have lost a defamation case brought by Toowoomba's Wagner family over deaths from the 2011 Queensland floods, with a Supreme Court judge ordering them to pay a total in $3.75 million. Justice Peter Flanagan said the defamatory imputations published by Mr Jones on his radio shows in Sydney and Brisbane were "extremely serious and of the gravest kind", including the claims the Wagner family and their quarry was responsible for the deaths of 12 people, including two children, in the Grantham floods in early 2011. Justice Flanagan said the multiple reports that claimed the Wagner family quarry was responsible for the flood deaths were clearly defamatory. Justice Flanagan ordered Macquarie Media, majority owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of The Australian Financial Review, to pay each of the Wagner brothers - Denis, John, Neil and Joe - $750,000 each plus interest of $78,102.74 in interest for the broadcasting of the comments on Sydney station 2GB and $100,000 each plus interest of $10,643.84 for the broadcast on Brisbane radio station 4BC. Total damages for each of the brothers was $938,746.58 for a total damages bill of $3,754,986.32.
Myer Holdings Ltd (MYR):
Myer has plunged to a $486 million loss after cutting prices to clear excess stock, slashing the value of goodwill and brand names and exiting stores, but has reached agreement with bankers to refinance debt and relax lending covenants. The full-year loss followed a $476 million loss in the first half, when Myer wrote down the value of goodwill and brand names by $515 million and booked $14 million in redundancy and store exit costs. Underlying net profit before impairment charges and restructuring costs in the year ended July 28 slumped 52.2 per cent to $32.5 million - implying a loss of $7.6 million in the July half - as rising costs of doing business and higher depreciation offset a slight improvement in gross margins. Earnings before interest and tax fell 48 per cent to $55.4 million. This compares with EBIT of $236 million in 2009, Myer's first year as a listed company. The underlying result fell slightly short of market forecasts. Analysts had been expecting full-year underlying net profit around $33.1 million and underlying EBIT around $57 million. Sales fell 3.2 per cent to $3.1 billion, with same-store sales falling 2.7 per cent over the year and by 2.4 per cent in the second-half.
SEEK Limited (SEK):
Seek chief executive Andrew Bassat says his company is actively preparing for the further incursion of tech giants Google and Facebook into the online recruitment market as it makes Australia a new global hub for the development of new technology products. Mr Bassat said the key to Seek’s future success against the global tech giants would be to continue increasing the value-added proposition for its customers, leaving its rivals to fight over the more commoditised parts of the online recruitment market. The company’s shares recently reached an all-time high despite it booking writedowns on some of its troubled Latin American businesses in its latest annual results. In the results the company revealed that higher technology spending over the past three years had underpinned its strong revenue growth in 2018. It also revealed plans to spend $35 million to $40m in 2019, investing in early-stage ventures that would boost revenues in five or more years from now.
Transurban Group (TCL), AND Lendlease Group (LLC):
Infrastructure developer Lendlease is still unable to confirm the opening date for Sydney's new $3 billion tollroad NorthConnex, underscoring the complexity of big tunnelling projects as Transurban prepares to take over the running of Australia's largest tollroad, WestConnex. The new tollroad, which will be operated by Transurban, was due to be completed by the end of 2019. Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton first flagged potential delays at the tollroad company's annual results in early August, saying the delivery timetable for NorthConnex was "under review" but that he expected the project to remain within budget. A month later, Lendlease says it cannot comment on when the tollroad will be finished, telling the The Australian Financial Review that there was "no additional update" on the project's completion date. Transurban also declined to comment, saying that delivery was still under review.
(Source: AIMS)
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