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ASB Securities Morning Brief for Saturday, 28 January 2012
New Zealand Headlines NZ Market Report. New Zealand stocks continued their rise today, with a turnaround in the fortunes of Fletcher Building indicating investors were finding favour in cyclical stocks... Read more The Overseas Investment Office approved the sale of the 16 Crafar farms to Shanghai Pengxin despite the Chinese bid stumbling at several important hurdles - such as job creation, introducing new technology and allowing New Zealand control in the business... Read more Jiang Zhaobai, the Chinese businessman purchasing the Crafar farms, is also a shareholder in a company seeking to buy land for a development in New Zealand... Read more Sir Michael Fay's group will fight approval for the Crafar farms to be sold overseas... Read more New Zealand reported a trade surplus in December as exports of milk powder, butter and cheese reached records... Read more Alan Bollard is expected to step down later this year, with reports that an announcement is imminent... Read more Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard says future monetary policy decisions will have to account for any increase in retail interest rates and the looming construction boom in Christchurch... Read more The pre-Christmas aftershocks will delay the rebuilding of Christchurch by a few months, the Reserve Bank believes... Read more Some economists are sceptical of Prime Minister John Key's continued commitment to getting the country back to surplus in two years.... Read more First New Zealand Capital working with Credit Suisse Australia, Macquarie Capital New Zealand and Goldman Sachs New Zealand have been anointed joint lead managers for the partial sale of Mighty River Power via an initial public share offer... Read more The New Zealand government will take part in a series of hui to consult with Maori on legislative changes it considers necessary in order to float the minority shareholdings of four State Owned Enterprises... Read more New Zealand Post Group, the state-owned postal service, is increasing its postage rates for domestically self-wrapped parcels and introducing an additional charge for rural deliveries in March, to cover rising petrol costs and inflation... Read more New Zealand’s operating deficit was wider than forecast in the first five months of the government’s fiscal year as personal income tax continued to come up short of the Treasury’s expectations... Read more A mothballed Solid Energy coal mine near Reefton should be back in production in about a year, says the Australian company which has taken it over... Read more When failed finance firm Bridgecorp first began missing investor payments a meeting discussing possible excuses was held in Rod Petricevic's office, a court heard yesterday... Read more Dubbed the Mega Conspiracy, the FBI began its investigation into Megaupload in March 2010, yet the scope of the inquiry reaches back five years... Read more Megaupload's creator Kim Dotcom may lease a $30m mansion north of Auckland with $6m worth of luxury vehicles in the garage, but if the copyright infringement allegations are true, he would seem to share more in common with flea-market Sione's Wedding DVD pirates than his wealthy Coatesville neighbours... Read more Ten years ago Kim Dotcom arranged for a film crew to record an extravagant holiday in Monaco. The German, generally dressed all in black, was the ubiquitous star, appearing with props befitting a Bond movie: super cars, luxury yachts, swimming pools and girls in bikinis... Read more Retailer Smiths City says it expects its increased presence in Wellington and the rebuild of Christchurch to create both short and long-term profit opportunities, although it expects the wider market to stay subdued... Read more Quake damage at Lyttelton has redirected about 80 cruise ships to Akaroa this summer. Although not exactly an ideal port, it has kept valuable tourists coming into Canterbury... Read more Horse buyers from around the world are descending on the National Yearling sales at Karaka in search of the next Phar Lap... Read more Trade Me has appointed American entrepreneur Mike DelPrete as its head of strategy and given him a brief to seek opportunities to expand the business... Read more Fitness chain Les Mills International lives up to its tagline that the company is "for a fitter planet", transforming people's fitness worldwide... Read more A significant drop in this year's sauvignon blanc grape yield could finally boost Marlborough's saturated wine industry... Read more Sharechat Comment. Ebos Group’s acquisition of Wellington based Masterpet Group is a major acquisition and the company believes this acquisition offers significant growth opportunities... Read more Fran O'Sullivan. The Crafar decision is a victory for economic rationalism over blind xenophobic nationalism. Long may the former reign... Read more Brian Gaynor. Excessive executive remuneration and income inequality will continue to be major issues this year as they are at the heart of growing criticism of our capitalist system... Read more Liam Dann. Promising science and technology companies are in and out of fashion so fast it is hard keep up with them all... Read more
Australian Headlines Australian Market Report. The sharemarket ended the week at a seven-week high, led by the resources and materials sector... Read more The overseas threat to service-sector jobs is growing rapidly as more companies, including three of the big four banks, outsource local jobs... Read more Australia could be down to just one car manufacturer within the next few years, warns former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett... Read more Australia's four largest banks will likely be forced to roll over debt worth more than $65 billion that had been backed by the government guarantee during the worst of the global recession, according to The Australian... Read more Woodside has rejected claims it has launched an auction of most of its stake in the Browse LNG project off Western Australia's Kimberley coast... Read more With Woodside Petroleum seeking to sell off the majority of its stake in the massive Browse liquefied natural gas project, Chinese interests are reportedly in talks to buy as much as 25 per cent of the Browse project, according to The Australian... Read more Los Angeles truck drivers have accused their Australian employer, transport company Toll, of treating them like ''second-class citizens'' by providing filthy toilets, no access to running water and no shelter during their breaks... Read more The Australian dollar is becoming an increasingly important asset for central banks as they look to reduce their exposure to US and European currencies... Read more The Australian dollar has retreated slightly from a six-month high after a reassessment of global economic prospects by the currency markets... Read more With Australia's banks under pressure to continue passing along the full amount of any interest rate cuts made by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Westpac Banking Corporation Ltd may position its interest rates independently of the RBA moves as it struggles with heavy exposure to Australia's residential mortgage market, according to a report by The Australian... Read more The chief executive of the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd, Mike Hirst, has played down fears of a crash in the property market.... Read more National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB) continues to struggle to prop-up its UK division, with the bank recently forced to inject £130 million ($A191 million) into a pension scheme for its British workers, according to a report by the Australian Financial Review... Read more Rio Tinto has wasted no time stamping its authority on Canada's Ivanhoe Mines, flagging management changes barely 48 hours after claiming control of the company... Read more Sunland concocted its lawsuit against two Australians it accuses of swindling it in a Dubai property deal to avoid the emirate laying bribery charges against it, a court has heard... Read more Failed menswear group Fletcher Jones is to sell all its stock as its administrator races against time to find a buyer for the Australian brand... Read more A tropical cyclone headed for the Pilbara coastline is likely to develop into a category four over coming days, forcing communities and companies to take steps to limit damage... Read more Government considers importing thousands of migrant workers to do jobs that are "beneath" many Australians.... Read more Shares in US-based sleep disorder specialist ResMed Inc have surged, despite the company reporting a drop in profit for the first half of the financial year as revenue rose but so did costs... Read more The number of leasing deals in Melbourne's key south-eastern industrial market was down nearly 33 per cent last year on the long-term average as the global financial crisis hangover hit business and consumer confidence... Read more Meet the boardroom kings of Queensland - pulling in thousands of taxpayer dollars for a handful of meetings a year... Read more Brockman Resources Ltd has appointed Aquila Resources Ltd executive Russell Tipper as chief executive officer at the mining group... Read more Stephen Bartholomeusz. It is not yet clear whether Australia's big retailers have responded too late to deep structural changes in the retail sector, but their new-found sense of urgency is a start... Read more Ross Gittins. This year we'll see more painful evidence of Australian businesses accepting the new reality: our dollar is likely to stay uncomfortably high for years, even decades... Read more Ian Verrender. If you are one of those people who love dramatic intrigue, twisting plots and tales of treachery, then 2012 is shaping up as a thrilling year... Read more Jessica Irvine. Dire warnings about Europe's future may be a tactic to bring the crisis to a head. Jessica Irvine considers the likely impact in Australia, where nerves are already jangling... Read more Ian McIlwraith. Of the many divisive issues raised during the Australia Day week, perhaps the most inevitable was that of the nation's productivity - even though many of us have no idea what it means... Read more Michael West. The highlands of Papua New Guinea are the most expensive place in the world to drill for oil, onshore that is... Read more Michael Pascoe. Davos this year symbolises Old World hubris, a “World Economic Forum” with minimal attendance by the world’s second-largest and most important economy... Read more
International Headlines US Market Report. Stocks slipped on Friday as data showed the U.S. economy grew less than expected in the fourth quarter, while some disappointing earnings added pressure to the market... Read more World Market Report. An updated report of the worlds' latest market movements... Read more European governments were warned against complacency as U.S. and International Monetary Fund officials told leaders at the World Economic Forum to strengthen their crisis defenses... Read more Greece could reach a deal with its creditors over the weekend, according to the EU's Economic Commissioner, Olli Rehn... Read more British Prime Minister David Cameron urges EU leaders to make bold decisions to pull Europe back from the financial brink, and says the UK is no closer to joining the fiscal treaty... Read more World Bank President Robert Zoellick has warned that the eurozone crisis could have a dire effect on emerging markets if it continues in 2012... Read more The pace of US economic growth quickened to a 2.8% annualised rate in the three months to December, the Commerce Department says... Read more The number of Spaniards without jobs rose by more than half a million last year to reach 5.27m, or 22.85 per cent of the workforce, in the final quarter, according to the National Statistics Institute... Read more Facebook plans to file documents as early as Wednesday for a highly anticipated IPO that will value the world's largest social network at between $75 billion and $100 billion, the Wall Street Journal cited unidentified sources as saying on Friday... Read more Royal Bank of Scotland has sought to defuse mounting political and public pressure in awarding chief executive Stephen Hester a bonus of just under £1m, less than half the amount he received for 2010... Read more UK Labour leader Ed Miliband and London mayor Boris Johnson have joined the chorus of criticism over the decision by the Royal Bank of Scotland to award its chief executive a bonus of nearly £1m... Read more Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond says he expects levels of compensation across the banking sector to be down this year, but has defended large bonuses as "pay for performance."... Read more US carmaker Ford has reported a surge in profits in 2011, fuelled by a one-off payment and strong sales in its home country... Read more Chevron Corp reported lower quarterly earnings on Friday, missing Wall Street forecasts, as rising spending on oil and gas projects and losses at its U.S. refinery business offset gains from higher crude oil prices... Read more BP must cover some but not all of oil rig owner Transocean's liabilities for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a US judge rules... Read more South Korea's Samsung Electronics has announced a 17% rise in profits in the last three months of 2011, as smartphone sales boosted earnings... Read more The CEO of drinks giant Diageo, Paul Walsh, says he does not regret his controversial comments over the UK's tax rate for higher earners.... Read more Michael Roseman, the former chief risk officer who is said to have raised red flags about aggressive trading bets at MF Global , will testify before Congress next week, according to a congressional staffer familiar with the matter... Read more Japan’s retail sales grew at the fastest pace in more than a year as a rebound in consumer spending propped up an economy reeling from the March earthquake and a deepening export slump... Read more Exactly how much is US Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney worth? Hard to say. The estimates, even from the candidate and his own campaign, are all over the map... Read more
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