Bendigo Bank's veteran chairman Robert Johnason has announced he will retire from the bank after the 2019 annual general meeting to be replaced by former Ericsson boss Jacqueline Hey. Mr Johanson has spent 31 years as a director of the regional bank, the past 13 years as chairman. During that time he oversaw the merger between Bendigo Bank and Adelaide Bank, steered the bank through the global financial crisis and represented the institution at the Hayne royal commission. More recently, she has been a director at Bendigo Bank since 2011, a director of Cricket Australia since 2012, a director of Qantas since 2013 and a director of AGL since 2016. Ms Hey said she was honoured by the appointment. In a statement, she also said she would continue to push Bendigo's proposition that the best banks feed into the prosperity of the community and not off it. "I look forward to working with everybody connected with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank as we strive to be Australia’s bank of choice," she said.
AMP Limited (AMP):
AMP and the trustees of its superannuation funds face a fresh class action alleging up to 1 million customers were overcharged fees on their accounts. Law firm Maurice Blackburn is expected to lodge a class action claim in the Federal Court today alleging two trustees - AMP Superannuation Limited and NM Superannuation Limited - of various AMP superannuation funds failed to discharge their legal duties to their customers. The lawsuit will centre on claims that a string of administration and other fees that AMP charged the funds were too high and the trustees breached their legal duty in failing to determine if the fees were fair or seek a better deal.
Costa Group Holdings Ltd (CGC):
The nation’s largest fruit and vegetable grower Costa Group has downgraded its profit guidance for the year ahead due to a deteriorating operating environment across some of its key product categories, high temporary water pricing and ongoing issues with its Moroccan berries business. “At the end of April, full year forecasts aligned with the previous financial guidance provided in February. As we have worked through May we are facing a deteriorating operating environment on a number of fronts which taken collectively are likely to impact the (calendar) full year results,’’ chief executive Harry Debney will tell shareholders at the company’s AGM in Melbourne this afternoon.
Coles Group Ltd (COL):
Coles has joined arch-rival Woolworths and their global retail peers to create high-margin media units in the race to compete with Amazon, Google and Facebook’s lucrative advertising platforms. Industry observers say Woolworths has plans to extract up to $100 million more from supplier trade marketing budgets through an in-store and online media unit called Cartology. Coles, meanwhile, has been trialling a self-service advertising platform for three months via its online shopping service which delivers advertising and sponsored “product listings” similar to Amazon’s advertising business in the US, which is storming Facebook and Google’s search service for advertising market share. eMarketer estimates Amazon’s advertising revenues will hit $15 billion next year, up from $3.3 billion in 2017. Most of it comes directly from Google’s search service and Facebook.
Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund (FSF):
Dairy group Fonterra says its Australian milk output dropped 10 per cent in March from a year earlier amid continued drought and high farm costs. The world’s biggest dairy exporter also said in a statement its New Zealand milk production fell 10 per cent in April from the year before as dry weather hit farms. The group’s dairy exports from New Zealand increased by 27 per cent in March on- year, buoyed by demand from key Asian markets, but exports from Australia fell three per cent in the same month. Fonterra earlier in May cut its annual earnings guidance and said it would close a more than 100-year old facility in Australia as dry weather and increased costs continued to undermine its operations.
Galaxy Resources Limited (GXY):
ASX-listed lithium miner Galaxy Resources has issued a release noting it had engaged in conversations with various parties about possible cooperation in a chemical processing plant in China. The announcement, which was in response to recent media reports, emphaised that all conversations have been “informal and are incomplete” and that “no binding or non-binding documentation has been signed”. The company also kept its options open, noting it may enter into one or more non-binding arrangements regarding possible cooperation in a China chemical processing plant “should an opportunity be identified that is worthy of further investigation.”
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA):
Commonwealth Bank will offer its new speedy loan assessments to potential business customers who agree to let the bank access their cloud accounting software, in a move that illustrates the growing role the Xero and MYOB platforms will have in helping businesses get credit. After CBA chief executive Matt Comyn unveiled CBA’s BizExpress product during a speech on Tuesday, the bank’s executive general manager of business customer solutions, Clive van Horen, said new customers would be able to get a decision on whether CBA was willing to lend in an average of 12 minutes – if they consented to the bank examining cash-flow and other business data held in the cloud. Mr van Horen said the bank was confident the level of bad debts from the new product would be no higher than general business lending because of new data analytic techniques, including models using machine learning. “We can place a lot of reliance on real cash flows and activity going through customer accounts,” he said. “The information is up to date and in real time. Using real transaction data from the accounting platforms is a reliable approach to assess the quality of credit. We do expect this portfolio to perform well.”
Qantas Airways Limited (QAN):
Low-fare carrier Jetstar has been ordered to pay a fine of $1.95 million for telling passengers certain fares were nonrefundable. In a ruling delivered today, the Federal Court found between April 2017 and March 2018, Jetstar made false or misleading representations on its website about the rights and remedies available to consumers. These included statements suggesting some fares were not refundable and that passengers could only get a refund if they bought a more expensive fare. The court also found Jetstar’s terms and conditions breached Australian Consumer Law by claiming that consumer guarantee rights did not apply to Jetstar’s flight services, and that Jetstar had limited obligation to provide refunds or replacement flights.
(Source: AIMS)
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