AUB Group Ltd (AUB):
AUB Group has tapped former Cover-More boss Mike Emmett to take the reins as chief executive from Mark Searles. Succession planning at the insurance broking, underwriting and risk services group was enacted in earnest in August last year when Mr Searles announced his intention to retire from the company. In an ASX statement on Thursday, AUB said Mr Emmett would commence in the CEO role from March 11, while Mr Searles would stay on in an advisory role until October and also pursue a career as a non-executive director. Mr Emmett was CEO of Cover-More – now owned by Swiss giant Zurich – for a period of more than two years until December and prior to that had a five-year stint at QBE Insurance across a number of executive roles.
Bell Financial Group Ltd (BFG):
Chairman of stockbroking giant Bell Financial Group, Colin Bell has stepped down from his role temporarily, citing health reasons. In a note to the market this morning, Bell said its managing director Alastair Provan would take over the role in an acting capacity effective immediately. Mr Bell remains on the board of Bell Financial as an executive director.
Coles Group Ltd (COL):
In a move to modernise its supply chain, Coles Group has today announced two new contracts to develop automated distribution centres in Queensland and New South Wales. Alongside that, the group have signed leases for land at Redbank in QLD and Kemps Creek in western Sydney where the facilities will be built. The NSW site covers 66,067 sq m and is the first site to be leased at Brickworks Oakdale West Industrial Estate - what will be the highest value asset owned by the Brickworks and Goodman joint venture trust. “This will provide a safer working environment for our team members, lower supply chain costs, enhance our overall business competitiveness and make life easier for our customers by having the right offer in the right location,” chief Steven Cain said. The company expects to spend $950 million on the centres over six years, with a tax-provision of $146 million to be recognised in the 2019 interim results related to lease exit costs and redundancies for existing distribution centres.
Evolution Mining Ltd (EVN):
Evolution Mining is the latest Australian gold miner to flag higher costs after reporting another quarter of solid production that keeps it on track to achieve annual targets. Evolution said all-in sustaining costs totaled $973 per troy ounce in the three months through December, up from $885/oz in the first quarter of the 2019 fiscal year. While the company said it was comfortable with annual guidance for costs between $850- $900/oz, it now sees costs averaging at the top end of that range. Gold wasn’t to blame for the uptick in costs. Instead, Evolution said a lower-thanexpected copper price had increased group all-in sustaining costs by $11 per ounce. “If the current copper price remains for the second half of fiscal 2019, group FY19 all-in sustaining costs would be negatively impacted against plan by $10-$15 per ounce,” said Evolution, adding it was looking at ways to mitigate this impact. Evolution dug up 181,996 ounces of gold in the second quarter, down from 200,218 ounces three months earlier. Still, year-todate output of 382,214 ounces means it’s on track to achieve an annual target of producing 720,000-770,000 ounces.
National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB):
National Australia Bank has buckled to pressure on funding costs and raised variable interest rates for homeowners and investor borrowers. The changes take effect from January 31 for existing customers as well as new ones. The bank was, however, the outlier among the big four last year after choosing to keep home loan rates steady rather than increase due to higher funding costs. The rate increases range from 12 basis points on owner occupied loans to 5.36 per cent, for those that pay principal and interest, to 16 basis points across investor loans for principal and interest and interest only. Owner occupier interest only loans rise by 16 basis points to 6.41 per cent, NAB said in an emailed statement.
OZ Minerals Ltd (OZL):
Oz Minerals’ fourth-quarter copper production has fallen about 1.4 per cent on weaker output from its Prominent Hill and Antas projects. Copper production for the three months to December 31 came in at 29,482 tonnes, compared with 29,886 tonnes last year, the miner said in a statement to the ASX on Thursday. Annual copper production came in at 115,998 tonnes, within the company’s forecast of 106,000 to 116,500 tonnes. “The Carrapateena project is now in peak construction, the West Musgrave project is in Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) and a platform for growth has been established in the world class Carajás and Gurupi mineral provinces in Brazil,” chief Andrew Cole said. “We have a healthy number of exploration projects in our pipeline that will evolve through the year and will continue to seek opportunities in priority mineralised belts to maintain future optionality. Our disciplined capital management approach will be applied to prioritise and focus our efforts.”
Santos Ltd (STO):
Santos’s fourth-quarter production numbers marked a strong end to the year for the South Australian oil and gas producer, according to RBC, with production and sales beating the broker’s estimates. Sales of $US1.04 billion beat RBC estimates by 3 per cent largely due to stronger than expected LNG pricing while sales volumes were driven by a good performance from its West Australian gas unit, PNG and the Cooper Basin. “We anticipate that the full-year results will pave the way for capital budgeting estimates, inclusive of the upcoming appraisal drilling program at the recently acquired Dorado asset,” RBC analyst Ben Wilson said. RBC ranks Santos as outperform with a price target of $7.50. Santos shares rose 3.2 per cent to $6.15 in early trading Thursday.
(Source: AIMS)
AUB Group has tapped former Cover-More boss Mike Emmett to take the reins as chief executive from Mark Searles. Succession planning at the insurance broking, underwriting and risk services group was enacted in earnest in August last year when Mr Searles announced his intention to retire from the company. In an ASX statement on Thursday, AUB said Mr Emmett would commence in the CEO role from March 11, while Mr Searles would stay on in an advisory role until October and also pursue a career as a non-executive director. Mr Emmett was CEO of Cover-More – now owned by Swiss giant Zurich – for a period of more than two years until December and prior to that had a five-year stint at QBE Insurance across a number of executive roles.
Bell Financial Group Ltd (BFG):
Chairman of stockbroking giant Bell Financial Group, Colin Bell has stepped down from his role temporarily, citing health reasons. In a note to the market this morning, Bell said its managing director Alastair Provan would take over the role in an acting capacity effective immediately. Mr Bell remains on the board of Bell Financial as an executive director.
Coles Group Ltd (COL):
In a move to modernise its supply chain, Coles Group has today announced two new contracts to develop automated distribution centres in Queensland and New South Wales. Alongside that, the group have signed leases for land at Redbank in QLD and Kemps Creek in western Sydney where the facilities will be built. The NSW site covers 66,067 sq m and is the first site to be leased at Brickworks Oakdale West Industrial Estate - what will be the highest value asset owned by the Brickworks and Goodman joint venture trust. “This will provide a safer working environment for our team members, lower supply chain costs, enhance our overall business competitiveness and make life easier for our customers by having the right offer in the right location,” chief Steven Cain said. The company expects to spend $950 million on the centres over six years, with a tax-provision of $146 million to be recognised in the 2019 interim results related to lease exit costs and redundancies for existing distribution centres.
Evolution Mining Ltd (EVN):
Evolution Mining is the latest Australian gold miner to flag higher costs after reporting another quarter of solid production that keeps it on track to achieve annual targets. Evolution said all-in sustaining costs totaled $973 per troy ounce in the three months through December, up from $885/oz in the first quarter of the 2019 fiscal year. While the company said it was comfortable with annual guidance for costs between $850- $900/oz, it now sees costs averaging at the top end of that range. Gold wasn’t to blame for the uptick in costs. Instead, Evolution said a lower-thanexpected copper price had increased group all-in sustaining costs by $11 per ounce. “If the current copper price remains for the second half of fiscal 2019, group FY19 all-in sustaining costs would be negatively impacted against plan by $10-$15 per ounce,” said Evolution, adding it was looking at ways to mitigate this impact. Evolution dug up 181,996 ounces of gold in the second quarter, down from 200,218 ounces three months earlier. Still, year-todate output of 382,214 ounces means it’s on track to achieve an annual target of producing 720,000-770,000 ounces.
National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB):
National Australia Bank has buckled to pressure on funding costs and raised variable interest rates for homeowners and investor borrowers. The changes take effect from January 31 for existing customers as well as new ones. The bank was, however, the outlier among the big four last year after choosing to keep home loan rates steady rather than increase due to higher funding costs. The rate increases range from 12 basis points on owner occupied loans to 5.36 per cent, for those that pay principal and interest, to 16 basis points across investor loans for principal and interest and interest only. Owner occupier interest only loans rise by 16 basis points to 6.41 per cent, NAB said in an emailed statement.
OZ Minerals Ltd (OZL):
Oz Minerals’ fourth-quarter copper production has fallen about 1.4 per cent on weaker output from its Prominent Hill and Antas projects. Copper production for the three months to December 31 came in at 29,482 tonnes, compared with 29,886 tonnes last year, the miner said in a statement to the ASX on Thursday. Annual copper production came in at 115,998 tonnes, within the company’s forecast of 106,000 to 116,500 tonnes. “The Carrapateena project is now in peak construction, the West Musgrave project is in Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) and a platform for growth has been established in the world class Carajás and Gurupi mineral provinces in Brazil,” chief Andrew Cole said. “We have a healthy number of exploration projects in our pipeline that will evolve through the year and will continue to seek opportunities in priority mineralised belts to maintain future optionality. Our disciplined capital management approach will be applied to prioritise and focus our efforts.”
Santos Ltd (STO):
Santos’s fourth-quarter production numbers marked a strong end to the year for the South Australian oil and gas producer, according to RBC, with production and sales beating the broker’s estimates. Sales of $US1.04 billion beat RBC estimates by 3 per cent largely due to stronger than expected LNG pricing while sales volumes were driven by a good performance from its West Australian gas unit, PNG and the Cooper Basin. “We anticipate that the full-year results will pave the way for capital budgeting estimates, inclusive of the upcoming appraisal drilling program at the recently acquired Dorado asset,” RBC analyst Ben Wilson said. RBC ranks Santos as outperform with a price target of $7.50. Santos shares rose 3.2 per cent to $6.15 in early trading Thursday.
(Source: AIMS)
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