Cromwell Property Group's biggest shareholder is set to step down from the company's board amid escalating tension between company and shareholder. Street Talk understands ARA Australia boss David Blight has tendered his resignation and will end his year-long stint in Cromwell's boardroom. It comes less than one month after Cromwell's board decided not to allocate discounted shares to Blight's ARA as part of a $375 million institutional placement. Cromwell, on the advice of its lawyers, deemed ARA a related party and rejected ARA's bid for stock. It also comes amid considerable tension between the two groups over potential conflicts.
Cynata Therapeutics Ltd (CYP):
Shares in Melbourne stem cell company Cynata Therapeutics have hit an eight-year high after it received a $202 million indicative and non-binding takeover offer from a Japanese pharmaceutical company. Separately, Cynata told the ASX in response to a query that it didn’t think the takeover bid could explain a rise in its securities in the five days to Tuesday from $1.23 to $1.60, its highest level since a March 21 sell-off. Earlier in the session, Cynata shares emerged from a brief trading halt and were up 20 cents, or 12.5 per cent, to $1.80 - their highest level since November 2010. Cynata said on Friday that it had received a $2-per-share indicative, non-binding and conditional offer from Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, and had granted the Japanese company due diligence access. “The Board does not believe the existence of the proposal, or the Company’s engagement with certain other parties in relation to making a proposal, is public information or would explain the recent trading in its securities,” Cynata told the ASX.
National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB):
National Australia Bank says Ross McEwan has been appointed CEO and managing director. NAB chairman-elect Philip Chronican said that with the appointment, NAB had secured a senior, global financial services executive with deep experience. Mr Chronican has been interim CEO since Andrew Thorburn’s resignation following he and chairman Ken Henry’s horrific appearance before the Financial Services Royal Commission. Mr McEwan has been a top contender for the job after his surprise resignation from the top job at Royal Bank of Scotland in April. In a statement Mr McEwan said he was looking forward to returning to Australia and leading the transformation program that began under the previous leadership team. "There are a number of areas where NAB can extend its lead, such as business banking, agriculture and health, and other areas where I believe we should consistently lead such as customer service. We must also meet and exceed the expectations of our many stakeholders. ” When he takes the new job, some time before April next year, Mr McEwan will be paid a base salary of $2.5 million, and incentives could see his total remuneration reach $9.5 million. Mr McEwan will be earning more than his predecessor, Andrew Thorburn, whose base pay was $2.3 million last year and total remuneration was below $8 million after two consecutive years of decreases.
Reef Casino Trust (RCT):
Reef Casino Trust, owner of Cairns’ Reef Hotel Casino, has lifted its dividend expectations for the first half after higher rentals in June. In a notice to the market, Reef Casino Trust said its estimate for distributable profit to June 20 had been revised to $1.5 million from earlier expectations of $1.5m. Alongside that, it said net proft for the six month period was expected at $750,000 versus $650,00 previously flagged. “RCT’s distribution policy is to distribute 100 per cent of distributable profit. For the six months ended 30 June 2019 this would now equate to 3.04 cents per unit,” it said. Final results are expected to be released on August 23.
Sydney Airport Holdings Pty Ltd (SYD):
Domestic traffic at Sydney Airport has slipped 1.5 per cent year to date, but made up by a boost a in international passengers. Sydney Airport’s June traffic performance results released this morning showed 13.3 million domestic passengers had made their way through the airport so far this year, compared to 13.5 million in the previous corresponding period. In comparison, international passengers grew by 1.9 per cent to 8.3 million, taking total passengers through the airport to 21.6 million year-to-date. “Domestic passenger numbers were impacted by capacity reductions combined with subdued load factors,” Sydney Airport chief Geoff Culbert said. He added Sydney’s top five fastest growing passenger groups over the month were Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, USA and India, all recording double digit growth compared to June 2018.
Woodside Petroleum (WPL):
Woodside Petroleum faces significant consensus downgrades to its first half earnings as analysts factor in pressure on gas prices and a hit from maintenance costs at its Pluto LNG project. The energy producer’s second quarter result yesterday raised a string of issues which appear to have surprised the market and led to a re-assessment of its likely interim and full-year profit performance. The extended turnaround at Pluto led to a 20 per cent drop in quarterly production and sales volumes with weak LNG prices leading to a 40 per cent fall in revenue, marking the lowest quarterly revenue level in a decade. Woodside’s first-half net profit after tax could be as much as 29 per cent below consensus of $US677 million ($957m) based on Citi’s range of $US441m to $US534m with a midpoint range of $US487m. There’s also uncertainty about whether it’s suffered from a one-off revenue cut or a broader downturn. “We will need to wait for segmental results in August to understand the degree to which the miss is one-off vs consensus, but we think the lion’s share of the miss is not a result of Pluto maintenance costs, so consensus forecasts may need to reduce into perpetuity,” Citi said in a research note.
Sezzle:
Afterpay rival Sezzle is set to join the growing crowd of buy now, pay later providers on the ASX this month after its initial public offering formally closes on Friday. The controversy surrounding Afterpay, and the potential entry of payment giants like Visa to the instalment payments sector, did nothing to dissuade institutional investors from paying $1.22 a share as part of the front end bookbuild process by Ord Minnett which raised $43.6 million to fund its expansion. Cyan Investment Management portfolio manager Dean Fergie said the fund manager's allocation of Sezzle stock in the float was scaled back significantly due to demand. "We would expect it to come on at reasonable premium," he said of the stock which is expected to start trading on July 30.
(Source: AIMS)
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