Agency Group Australia Ltd (AU1):
West Australian-based real estate disrupter The Agency has acquired east coast real estate group Top Level for an undisclosed sum after two years of trying to secure a deal. The news comes after The Agency raised the required $8.4 million, issuing 28 million shares at 30 cents per share. Following the deal, which was worth approximately $5.5m in The Agency shares, the merged company will have 4209 properties under management and a mortgage book of $1.2 billion. It will also have 293 sales representatives across Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast. Preliminary combined revenue for the six months through December was $24.5m.
Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (APT):
Shares in buy now, pay later service Afterpay Touch are on a tear, after the company reported what it said was its best month ever in December. At 2pm (AEDT), the company’s shares (APT) were up over 13 per cent at $15.94 after reporting underlying sales in the first half of fiscal 2019 of over $2.2 billion, up from $918 million a year earlier, a rise of 140 per cent. It said over 23,000 merchants have transacted with Afterpay around the world in the last 12 months, with its US business accounting for $260m worth of underlying sales in the first half. The company’s current share price is still below its all-time high of $19.69 which it hit in August 2018, but is multiple times higher than its IPO price of $2.95.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ):
ANZ has attempted to trump the debut of Commonwealth Bank’s Apple Pay service later this month with an announcement that it will extend its own service to debit card purchases. ANZ was the first bank to sign for Apple Pay back in 2016, allowing customers to use the system with a credit card, but the other major banks had been reluctant to follow suit. In December, Commonwealth Bank became the second bank to announce it would allow customers access to Apple Pay from January, but the system is yet to launched. Other institutions to offer Apple Pay in Australia include HSBC, ING, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and Macquarie. ANZ’s latest announcement will mean that from today, debit cardholders can now choose eftpos when paying with Apple Pay on an iPhone or Apple Watch. The announcement comes after a report by AlphaBeta found that young Australians have less credit card debt than their more senior peers, with the number of millennials who owned a credit card dropping 17 per cent in the past 14 years.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA):
Commonwealth Bank of Australia has disclosed a non-cash profit hit of $169 million in its first-half, along with a shake-up of several business units which reflects its divestment spree and a simplification program. In an ASX statement today, CBA (CBA) said noncash losses totalling $169m, post-tax, would be included within the statutory net profit in its interim result to be handed down in February. The losses stem from the sale of a string of businesses amounting to $74m, and transaction and separation costs on the sale of its global asset management arm and life insurance division and the upcoming demerger of its financial planning and mortgage broking units. Transaction and separation costs related to the sale of Colonial First State Global Asset Management (CFSGAM) were $100m post-tax while CommInsure Life caused a $38m expense. The profit hit also included a loss on the disposal of South Africa’s digital bank TymeDigital and project costs and hedging and accounting treatment “volatility losses” of $91m, post-tax. The bank also outlined a raft of changes to its business unit structures. At 10.43am (AEDT), shares in CBA were up 23 cents, or 0.32 per cent, at $73.
Macquarie Group Ltd (MQG):
In a sign of rising appetite for US infrastructure since the November US midterm elections, Macquarie Group's investment arm raised 40 per cent more than it anticipated for new roads, energy and waste projects. The funding push comes as the race for new opportunities across America's chronically underdone infrastructure sector heats up, with a swath of newly elected state and local leaders pushing hard to kick off new projects. Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Asset (MIRA) said on Thursday (Friday AEDT) that it had closed its fifth North American unlisted infrastructure fund after hitting its cap of $US5 billion ($7 billion). That takes to $US29 billion the total sum investors have committed to the unit for infrastructure.
QBE Insurance Group Ltd (QBE):
QBE Insurance has cleared the final hurdle in its preparations for Brexit, after a British court approved a restructure that shifts around a quarter of its insurance business from London into a new legal entity in Brussels. The new European subsidiary, QBE Europe, will be based in QBE's existing Belgian premises. It will have about 320 staff and turnover (gross written premium) in the insurance side of the business of around £300 million ($565 million). QBE Europe's business will be roughly 50-50 insurance and reinsurance, as the new entity has swallowed up the reinsurance business QBE Re, which writes business through branches in Belgium, Bermuda and Ireland. Australia's financial services companies are among those feeling the largest potential impact from Brexit, because of the regulatory requirements to run European business from within the EU.
Rio Tinto Limited (RIO):
A better than expected performance from Rio Tinto’s copper division has proved to be the highlight of an otherwise solid quarter from the mining giant. The December quarterly report released by the company on Friday showed a 33 per cent jump in copper production for 2018, due to what it said was strong production from its Escondida and Kennecott operations. The copper output for December of 178,000 tonnes was 21 per cent higher than forecast by analysts at JP Morgan and was 5-6 per cent higher than predicted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Rio Tinto on Tuesday also reported a 1 per cent year-on-year fall in output of bauxite, the raw ingredient in aluminium, despite recent measures implemented to reduce bottlenecks at its Gove operations. Aluminium production fell by 3 per cent on a year ago, while mined copper output surged 33 per cent. Shares in Rio Tinto were up 0.7 per cent to $80.96 in late morning trade, broadly in line with fellow major BHP.
(Source: AIMS)
West Australian-based real estate disrupter The Agency has acquired east coast real estate group Top Level for an undisclosed sum after two years of trying to secure a deal. The news comes after The Agency raised the required $8.4 million, issuing 28 million shares at 30 cents per share. Following the deal, which was worth approximately $5.5m in The Agency shares, the merged company will have 4209 properties under management and a mortgage book of $1.2 billion. It will also have 293 sales representatives across Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast. Preliminary combined revenue for the six months through December was $24.5m.
Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (APT):
Shares in buy now, pay later service Afterpay Touch are on a tear, after the company reported what it said was its best month ever in December. At 2pm (AEDT), the company’s shares (APT) were up over 13 per cent at $15.94 after reporting underlying sales in the first half of fiscal 2019 of over $2.2 billion, up from $918 million a year earlier, a rise of 140 per cent. It said over 23,000 merchants have transacted with Afterpay around the world in the last 12 months, with its US business accounting for $260m worth of underlying sales in the first half. The company’s current share price is still below its all-time high of $19.69 which it hit in August 2018, but is multiple times higher than its IPO price of $2.95.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ):
ANZ has attempted to trump the debut of Commonwealth Bank’s Apple Pay service later this month with an announcement that it will extend its own service to debit card purchases. ANZ was the first bank to sign for Apple Pay back in 2016, allowing customers to use the system with a credit card, but the other major banks had been reluctant to follow suit. In December, Commonwealth Bank became the second bank to announce it would allow customers access to Apple Pay from January, but the system is yet to launched. Other institutions to offer Apple Pay in Australia include HSBC, ING, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and Macquarie. ANZ’s latest announcement will mean that from today, debit cardholders can now choose eftpos when paying with Apple Pay on an iPhone or Apple Watch. The announcement comes after a report by AlphaBeta found that young Australians have less credit card debt than their more senior peers, with the number of millennials who owned a credit card dropping 17 per cent in the past 14 years.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA):
Commonwealth Bank of Australia has disclosed a non-cash profit hit of $169 million in its first-half, along with a shake-up of several business units which reflects its divestment spree and a simplification program. In an ASX statement today, CBA (CBA) said noncash losses totalling $169m, post-tax, would be included within the statutory net profit in its interim result to be handed down in February. The losses stem from the sale of a string of businesses amounting to $74m, and transaction and separation costs on the sale of its global asset management arm and life insurance division and the upcoming demerger of its financial planning and mortgage broking units. Transaction and separation costs related to the sale of Colonial First State Global Asset Management (CFSGAM) were $100m post-tax while CommInsure Life caused a $38m expense. The profit hit also included a loss on the disposal of South Africa’s digital bank TymeDigital and project costs and hedging and accounting treatment “volatility losses” of $91m, post-tax. The bank also outlined a raft of changes to its business unit structures. At 10.43am (AEDT), shares in CBA were up 23 cents, or 0.32 per cent, at $73.
Macquarie Group Ltd (MQG):
In a sign of rising appetite for US infrastructure since the November US midterm elections, Macquarie Group's investment arm raised 40 per cent more than it anticipated for new roads, energy and waste projects. The funding push comes as the race for new opportunities across America's chronically underdone infrastructure sector heats up, with a swath of newly elected state and local leaders pushing hard to kick off new projects. Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Asset (MIRA) said on Thursday (Friday AEDT) that it had closed its fifth North American unlisted infrastructure fund after hitting its cap of $US5 billion ($7 billion). That takes to $US29 billion the total sum investors have committed to the unit for infrastructure.
QBE Insurance Group Ltd (QBE):
QBE Insurance has cleared the final hurdle in its preparations for Brexit, after a British court approved a restructure that shifts around a quarter of its insurance business from London into a new legal entity in Brussels. The new European subsidiary, QBE Europe, will be based in QBE's existing Belgian premises. It will have about 320 staff and turnover (gross written premium) in the insurance side of the business of around £300 million ($565 million). QBE Europe's business will be roughly 50-50 insurance and reinsurance, as the new entity has swallowed up the reinsurance business QBE Re, which writes business through branches in Belgium, Bermuda and Ireland. Australia's financial services companies are among those feeling the largest potential impact from Brexit, because of the regulatory requirements to run European business from within the EU.
Rio Tinto Limited (RIO):
A better than expected performance from Rio Tinto’s copper division has proved to be the highlight of an otherwise solid quarter from the mining giant. The December quarterly report released by the company on Friday showed a 33 per cent jump in copper production for 2018, due to what it said was strong production from its Escondida and Kennecott operations. The copper output for December of 178,000 tonnes was 21 per cent higher than forecast by analysts at JP Morgan and was 5-6 per cent higher than predicted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Rio Tinto on Tuesday also reported a 1 per cent year-on-year fall in output of bauxite, the raw ingredient in aluminium, despite recent measures implemented to reduce bottlenecks at its Gove operations. Aluminium production fell by 3 per cent on a year ago, while mined copper output surged 33 per cent. Shares in Rio Tinto were up 0.7 per cent to $80.96 in late morning trade, broadly in line with fellow major BHP.
(Source: AIMS)
Latest comments