Adairs Ltd (ADH):
Bedding retailer Adairs' decision to expand into new categories such as home decor and children's homewares is paying off in spades, helping the retailer overcome the weaker housing market and lift net profit 6.8 per cent to $14.9 million in the December-half. Adairs said on Monday sales from "expansion categories", which include cushions, pot plants, baskets and picture frames, now represent 42 per cent of sales, up from almost 34 per cent four years ago. Total sales for the six months ended December 30 rose 10.3 per cent to $164.4 million, with online sales rising 49 per cent, augmenting 2 per cent comparable sales growth in bricks and mortar stores to lift same-store sales by 7.3 per cent. Adairs opened four stores and refurbished or increased the size of six, but closed five stores, including three Myer concessions, taking its total network to 166 outlets. Earnings before interest and tax rose 7.2 per cent to $21.9 million, beating consensus forecasts of about $21.5 million.
Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (APT):
Afterpay Touch has pledged to work with its competitors to block vulnerable customers from using the service, after a Senate committee on Friday called for the development of a separate regulatory framework for 'buy now pay later' providers to be developed. In a response to the Senate committee report issued after the market closed on Friday, Afterpay said on Monday it doesn't expect "any material impact on our business or business model" from the recommendations in the report, which it described as a "sensible, appropriate and a proportionate policy". The Senate economics references committee on Friday called for a separate regulatory framework outside of the National Credit Code to be developed to regulate buy now pay later providers. It also wants an industry code of conduct to be developed. Players in the space welcome both recommendations, and will move to establish new systems to flag customers who are trying open multiple accounts. This was a major concern the Australian Securities and Investments Commission identified with the sector in a separate report last year.
Brambles Limited (BXB):
Brambles has agreed to sell its reusable plastic container business to a unit of Abu Dhabi wealth fund for over $US2.51 billion ($3.51 billion), earmarking most of the proceeds for a buyback and sending its stock sharply higher. From the $US2.36 billion that the company expects in proceeds, it plans to return up to $US1.95 billion to shareholders. Its shares hit a two-year high at the open of trade, gaining as much as 8.1 per cent, while the broader market rose 0.2 per cent. The pallets and container firm said it entered a binding agreement to sell its IFCO business to Triton and Luxinva, and expected to complete the deal in the second quarter of 2019. Brambles said its buyback would run up to $US1.65 billion, while $US300 million of the proceeds would be returned to shareholders in cash, and the remaining amount would be used to repay the company's debt.
Lendlease Group (LLC):
Lendlease cut its dividend by almost two-thirds and swung to a pre-tax loss in a tough trading period that saw revenue slump by $1 billion and included a $350 million write-down of its troubled engineering business. The diversified developer and investor on Monday declared a 12¢ dividend for the six months to December, down from 34¢ a year earlier, as it said net profit after tax had slumped to $15.7 million from $425.7 million. Revenue fell to $7.7 billion from $8.7 billion. Development and investment earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation more than halved while construction swung from a $78.2 million profit to a $362.3 million loss for a period in which the company stripped out the results of its engineering and services division, which it has declared non-core and is looking to offload. "It was a challenging half year," the company said in its announcement. “The investments segment continued to outperform and the development segment delivered a solid result, although development earnings are anticipated to be skewed to the second half of the financial year."
MYOB Group Ltd (MYO):
Accounting software company MYOB has failed to attract any superior bids in its "go shop" period, taking it one step closer to being bought out by its third private equity owner. Under the terms of an arrangement struck with New York-based private equity firm KKR, MYOB recommended KKR's $3.40-per-share bid to shareholders in late December, on the condition that it support any higher bids that emerged in a 60-day period after it signed on the dotted line. The announcement comes one day after MYOB posted its full-year results for 2018, revealing revenue growth had slowed to 6.9 per cent. At the time, Mr Reed said the "go shop" period had allowed the MYOB board to see whether there were any other bidders, knowing KKR would sell its almost 20 per cent stake or support any higher offers. But despite contacting strategic parties and financial sponsors, no other bids had been received, MYOB said on Friday in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
Origin Energy Ltd (ORG):
Major power and gas retailer Origin Energy has estimated it will suffer a $44 million hit to pre-tax earnings from next financial year because of the government's proposed introduction of a default market offer for electricity in three states. If the final structure of the default offer is the same as the draft, released on Saturday, it will result in about 230,000 households receiving savings of $105 a year on average, while about 55,000 small business customers will see an average saving of $355 a year, Origin said on Monday, becoming the first of the retailers to estimate the financial impact from the controversial measure. The move, part of the Morrison government's push to rein in runaway energy prices, will see all expensive standing offers in NSW, South Australia and south-east Queensland replaced by the default market offer from July 1.
QBE Insurance Group Ltd (QBE):
Insurance giant QBE has posted full-year net profit of $US390 million ($547 million) after shedding several overseas businesses and a fall in the number of natural catastrophe claims. The result was a major improvement on 2017, where "extreme catastrophe experience" led to a dramatic loss of $US1.25 billion ($1.75 billion). Revenue however decreased over the 12 months to December 31 by 8 per cent on the previous year, at $US15.298 billion ($21.441 billion). That included a rise in gross written premiums but a fall in investment income. QBE will pay a final dividend of 28¢ per share, of which 16.8¢ will be franked. That brings the full year dividend to 50¢ per share. The dividend will be paid on April 18. The results come after a year of radical simplification, in which QBE disposed of its operations in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and Thailand.
Telstra Corporation Ltd (TLS):
Telstra is unlikely to charge customers more to use its 5G network than it's now charging for the 4G network, chief executive Andy Penn said. Speaking at MWC, the world's largest mobile telecommunications conference here in Barcelona, Mr Penn said that while Telstra would formally announce the price of the high-speed 5G network when phones and modems were available that could use the network, the core connectivity plans probably wouldn't be "differentially priced" compared to the pricing of Telstra's current connectivity plans, which operate on the slower 4G network. As part of its $3 billion "Telstra2022" network upgrade plan, Telstra is in the midst of rolling out the new network, which will theoretically offer speeds up to 20 times faster than 4G, as well offering better responsiveness so that applications such as web browsing, that don't require a lot of bandwidth, will still load a lot faster.
G8 Education Ltd (GEM):
The company said childcare centres it had acquired in acquisitions in past years had performed below expectations but it was taking steps to turn them around. G8 said revenue for the calendar year was up eight per cent, to $857 million, and declared an interim dividend of eight cents a share. "The group's profit and cashflow results reflects the disciplined management of the G8 portfolio in challenging market conditions," G8 managing director Gary Carroll said on Monday. G8 runs 17 childcare centres in Singapore and 519 across Australia, operating under a number of brands including Kinder Haven, Penguin Childcare and Creative Garden.
Automotive Holdings Group Ltd (AHG):
Australia’s largest new vehicle retailer, Automotive Holdings Group (ASX: AHG), delivered a promising interim result on Friday. This triggered a 10% increase in the group’s share price, as management signalled tougher industry conditions were easing and some internal issues had been addressed, indicating that the company was in a turnaround phase. This comes less than a month after Trifecta flagged the stock as one of its picks in an oversold motor vehicle retailing sector. The company’s shares are now up more than 20%, no doubt targeted by forward-looking investors who are focused on the group being able to leverage its strong market position as industry conditions improve in fiscal 2020.
Appen Ltd (APX):
Search and language data services company Appen has beaten its own full-year forecasts in spectacular fashion, as the number of companies investing in artificial intelligence continues to grow and the demand for high-quality training data increases. At its most basic, Appen's main service is crunching data that big companies then use to underpin their own artificial intelligence algorithms. At Amazon or Microsoft, for example, that data might be used to train their voice assistants Alexa or Cortana, while online retailers use Appen's tagged data to deliver the results their customers are searching for. For the year to December 31, the business recorded a 119 per cent jump in $364.3 million, while its underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation leapt 153 per cent to $71.3 million (up 206 per cent to $68.1 million on a statutory basis). Its underlying EBITDA margin also improved from 16.9 per cent to 19.6 per cent.
BlueScope Steel Limited (BSL):
BlueScope Steel has lifted first-half profit 42 per cent to $624.3 million, helped by a 17 per cent increase in revenue due to stronger steel prices and a weaker Australian dollar. The steelmaker said on Monday that profit for the six months to December 31 rose from $441.2 million a year earlier, while underlying earnings before interest and tax jumped 62 per cent to a record $849.6 million despite higher costs. BlueScope beat the EBIT guidance of $830 million given in November and its shares were 38 cents, or 3.3 per cent, higher at $11.98 by 1045 AEDT. "It's an excellent result, our best half on record," managing director and chief executive Mark Vassella said. "It was driven by strong demand and steel spreads in our US and Australasian markets."
(Source: AIMS)
Bedding retailer Adairs' decision to expand into new categories such as home decor and children's homewares is paying off in spades, helping the retailer overcome the weaker housing market and lift net profit 6.8 per cent to $14.9 million in the December-half. Adairs said on Monday sales from "expansion categories", which include cushions, pot plants, baskets and picture frames, now represent 42 per cent of sales, up from almost 34 per cent four years ago. Total sales for the six months ended December 30 rose 10.3 per cent to $164.4 million, with online sales rising 49 per cent, augmenting 2 per cent comparable sales growth in bricks and mortar stores to lift same-store sales by 7.3 per cent. Adairs opened four stores and refurbished or increased the size of six, but closed five stores, including three Myer concessions, taking its total network to 166 outlets. Earnings before interest and tax rose 7.2 per cent to $21.9 million, beating consensus forecasts of about $21.5 million.
Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (APT):
Afterpay Touch has pledged to work with its competitors to block vulnerable customers from using the service, after a Senate committee on Friday called for the development of a separate regulatory framework for 'buy now pay later' providers to be developed. In a response to the Senate committee report issued after the market closed on Friday, Afterpay said on Monday it doesn't expect "any material impact on our business or business model" from the recommendations in the report, which it described as a "sensible, appropriate and a proportionate policy". The Senate economics references committee on Friday called for a separate regulatory framework outside of the National Credit Code to be developed to regulate buy now pay later providers. It also wants an industry code of conduct to be developed. Players in the space welcome both recommendations, and will move to establish new systems to flag customers who are trying open multiple accounts. This was a major concern the Australian Securities and Investments Commission identified with the sector in a separate report last year.
Brambles Limited (BXB):
Brambles has agreed to sell its reusable plastic container business to a unit of Abu Dhabi wealth fund for over $US2.51 billion ($3.51 billion), earmarking most of the proceeds for a buyback and sending its stock sharply higher. From the $US2.36 billion that the company expects in proceeds, it plans to return up to $US1.95 billion to shareholders. Its shares hit a two-year high at the open of trade, gaining as much as 8.1 per cent, while the broader market rose 0.2 per cent. The pallets and container firm said it entered a binding agreement to sell its IFCO business to Triton and Luxinva, and expected to complete the deal in the second quarter of 2019. Brambles said its buyback would run up to $US1.65 billion, while $US300 million of the proceeds would be returned to shareholders in cash, and the remaining amount would be used to repay the company's debt.
Lendlease Group (LLC):
Lendlease cut its dividend by almost two-thirds and swung to a pre-tax loss in a tough trading period that saw revenue slump by $1 billion and included a $350 million write-down of its troubled engineering business. The diversified developer and investor on Monday declared a 12¢ dividend for the six months to December, down from 34¢ a year earlier, as it said net profit after tax had slumped to $15.7 million from $425.7 million. Revenue fell to $7.7 billion from $8.7 billion. Development and investment earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation more than halved while construction swung from a $78.2 million profit to a $362.3 million loss for a period in which the company stripped out the results of its engineering and services division, which it has declared non-core and is looking to offload. "It was a challenging half year," the company said in its announcement. “The investments segment continued to outperform and the development segment delivered a solid result, although development earnings are anticipated to be skewed to the second half of the financial year."
MYOB Group Ltd (MYO):
Accounting software company MYOB has failed to attract any superior bids in its "go shop" period, taking it one step closer to being bought out by its third private equity owner. Under the terms of an arrangement struck with New York-based private equity firm KKR, MYOB recommended KKR's $3.40-per-share bid to shareholders in late December, on the condition that it support any higher bids that emerged in a 60-day period after it signed on the dotted line. The announcement comes one day after MYOB posted its full-year results for 2018, revealing revenue growth had slowed to 6.9 per cent. At the time, Mr Reed said the "go shop" period had allowed the MYOB board to see whether there were any other bidders, knowing KKR would sell its almost 20 per cent stake or support any higher offers. But despite contacting strategic parties and financial sponsors, no other bids had been received, MYOB said on Friday in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
Origin Energy Ltd (ORG):
Major power and gas retailer Origin Energy has estimated it will suffer a $44 million hit to pre-tax earnings from next financial year because of the government's proposed introduction of a default market offer for electricity in three states. If the final structure of the default offer is the same as the draft, released on Saturday, it will result in about 230,000 households receiving savings of $105 a year on average, while about 55,000 small business customers will see an average saving of $355 a year, Origin said on Monday, becoming the first of the retailers to estimate the financial impact from the controversial measure. The move, part of the Morrison government's push to rein in runaway energy prices, will see all expensive standing offers in NSW, South Australia and south-east Queensland replaced by the default market offer from July 1.
QBE Insurance Group Ltd (QBE):
Insurance giant QBE has posted full-year net profit of $US390 million ($547 million) after shedding several overseas businesses and a fall in the number of natural catastrophe claims. The result was a major improvement on 2017, where "extreme catastrophe experience" led to a dramatic loss of $US1.25 billion ($1.75 billion). Revenue however decreased over the 12 months to December 31 by 8 per cent on the previous year, at $US15.298 billion ($21.441 billion). That included a rise in gross written premiums but a fall in investment income. QBE will pay a final dividend of 28¢ per share, of which 16.8¢ will be franked. That brings the full year dividend to 50¢ per share. The dividend will be paid on April 18. The results come after a year of radical simplification, in which QBE disposed of its operations in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and Thailand.
Telstra Corporation Ltd (TLS):
Telstra is unlikely to charge customers more to use its 5G network than it's now charging for the 4G network, chief executive Andy Penn said. Speaking at MWC, the world's largest mobile telecommunications conference here in Barcelona, Mr Penn said that while Telstra would formally announce the price of the high-speed 5G network when phones and modems were available that could use the network, the core connectivity plans probably wouldn't be "differentially priced" compared to the pricing of Telstra's current connectivity plans, which operate on the slower 4G network. As part of its $3 billion "Telstra2022" network upgrade plan, Telstra is in the midst of rolling out the new network, which will theoretically offer speeds up to 20 times faster than 4G, as well offering better responsiveness so that applications such as web browsing, that don't require a lot of bandwidth, will still load a lot faster.
G8 Education Ltd (GEM):
The company said childcare centres it had acquired in acquisitions in past years had performed below expectations but it was taking steps to turn them around. G8 said revenue for the calendar year was up eight per cent, to $857 million, and declared an interim dividend of eight cents a share. "The group's profit and cashflow results reflects the disciplined management of the G8 portfolio in challenging market conditions," G8 managing director Gary Carroll said on Monday. G8 runs 17 childcare centres in Singapore and 519 across Australia, operating under a number of brands including Kinder Haven, Penguin Childcare and Creative Garden.
Automotive Holdings Group Ltd (AHG):
Australia’s largest new vehicle retailer, Automotive Holdings Group (ASX: AHG), delivered a promising interim result on Friday. This triggered a 10% increase in the group’s share price, as management signalled tougher industry conditions were easing and some internal issues had been addressed, indicating that the company was in a turnaround phase. This comes less than a month after Trifecta flagged the stock as one of its picks in an oversold motor vehicle retailing sector. The company’s shares are now up more than 20%, no doubt targeted by forward-looking investors who are focused on the group being able to leverage its strong market position as industry conditions improve in fiscal 2020.
Appen Ltd (APX):
Search and language data services company Appen has beaten its own full-year forecasts in spectacular fashion, as the number of companies investing in artificial intelligence continues to grow and the demand for high-quality training data increases. At its most basic, Appen's main service is crunching data that big companies then use to underpin their own artificial intelligence algorithms. At Amazon or Microsoft, for example, that data might be used to train their voice assistants Alexa or Cortana, while online retailers use Appen's tagged data to deliver the results their customers are searching for. For the year to December 31, the business recorded a 119 per cent jump in $364.3 million, while its underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation leapt 153 per cent to $71.3 million (up 206 per cent to $68.1 million on a statutory basis). Its underlying EBITDA margin also improved from 16.9 per cent to 19.6 per cent.
BlueScope Steel Limited (BSL):
BlueScope Steel has lifted first-half profit 42 per cent to $624.3 million, helped by a 17 per cent increase in revenue due to stronger steel prices and a weaker Australian dollar. The steelmaker said on Monday that profit for the six months to December 31 rose from $441.2 million a year earlier, while underlying earnings before interest and tax jumped 62 per cent to a record $849.6 million despite higher costs. BlueScope beat the EBIT guidance of $830 million given in November and its shares were 38 cents, or 3.3 per cent, higher at $11.98 by 1045 AEDT. "It's an excellent result, our best half on record," managing director and chief executive Mark Vassella said. "It was driven by strong demand and steel spreads in our US and Australasian markets."
(Source: AIMS)
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