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ASB Securities Morning Brief for Thursday, 11 March 2010
New Zealand Headlines Former Hanover boss Mark Hotchin is hoping to jointly fund his finance company FAI Money with bank money after pulling the plug on its debenture borrowing... Read more Former Hanover owners Mark Hotchin and Eric Watson have decided they will no longer hit up mum and dad investors for cash because it's "too hard" without the Government guarantee... Read more Kiwibank is planning to raise up to $150 million in tier one capital early next month through an issue of preference shares, listed on the NZX... Read more State-owned Kiwibank is planning to raise money from the public to underpin its growth, raising questions about parent New Zealand Post's ability to continue funding it.... Read more Labour has called on the Government to set aside a majority recommendation of the Commerce Commission and regulate mobile termination charges, blamed for pushing up the cost of calls to and from cellphones... Read more 2degrees says it may rethink plans to expand its national cellular network if the Government accepts a Commerce Commission proposal on the termination rates the mobile phone operator pays competitors... Read more The Government will pocket about $290 million in fees from big banks using the wholesale funding guarantee, which will close at the end of April, the Government says... Read more Listed healthcare devices innovator Fisher & Paykel Healthcare says with at least 50 million people in the developed world still to be diagnosed and treated for obstructive sleep apnoea, its latest home treatment device range has a lot of potential headroom for earnings.... Read more New Zealand's terms of trade had its biggest jump since 1976 in the fourth quarter, as a decline in import prices outpaced an unexpected drop in exports... Read more Lombard Group is proposing to become Australian, taking war-weary Kiwi shareholders with it... Read more A High Court judge has brokered a compromise on a significant side issue in a case between former Tranz Rail owner Toll Holdings and the Inland Revenue Department over allegations of tens of millions of dollars worth of tax avoidance... Read more Prudential may quit the New Zealand market quickly if its $35.5 billion purchase of American International Group's (AIG's) AIA goes ahead... Read more Trading in shares of Wakefield Health on the New Zealand stock exchange has been halted, "pending a material announcement"... Read more Christchurch property developer David Henderson has pulled off a rare feat - a win in the High Court in Christchurch in a tax case against the Inland Revenue Department... Read more Christchurch technology developer IndraNet Technologies is hoping to raise $6 million to develop a solar energy system called nGen that it claims is a cheap and efficient energy "miracle" the world needs... Read more Milford Asset Management, the funds management firm fronted by high profile commentator, Brian Gaynor, has a new managing director. Also the founder of smart metering company Pulse has decided it's time to retire... Read more A new redundancy and life insurance product called Stop-Gap has exceeded launch expectations as unemployment during the recession highlights the need to be covered... Read more Brian Fallow. The government plans to set up an Australian-style Productivity Commission in the hope that it would lift the quality of public policy and so make the economic boat go faster... Read more Daily Sharechat. Children's clothing company Pumpkin Patch's first-half result was impressive, especially at the bottom line, says Florian Burch, an analyst at ASB Securities... Read more NZ Market Report. New Zealand shares rose, led by children's clothing retailer Pumpkin Patch and jewellery chain Michael Hill International after a survey showed consumer confidence in Australia continues to track higher... Read more
Australian Headlines Australian Market Report. Shares close unchanged, after eight straight session of gains, with the property sector hit by losses... Read more The Reserve Bank has warned of even higher house prices as figures show that interest rate rises and the end of the first home owners boost appear to have slowed lending in Victoria... Read more The combination of higher interest rates and the expiry of the boost to the first homeowners' grant has driven a big fall in housing finance in January.... Read more A leading private survey has shown resilience among Australian consumers, despite the interest rate rise in March... Read more Federal Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard is backing a union for taking a gender pay gap case to the industrial umpire.... Read more World's second-biggest miner, Vale, aims to expand its coal operations and fast-track projects.... Read more Orica may be forced to pay another $126 million to the Tax Office after effectively losing a convoluted court dispute over a huge capital gains tax bill... Read more Telstra shares enjoyed a brief reprieve from their three-month battering yesterday... Read more Two long-term US backers of Fortescue Metals Group have reportedly sold significant chunks of their shareholdings... Read more Alesco shares plunge 31.6 per cent, wiping a full year's gains off the price... Read more The Queensland government has appointed five investment banks to manage its $3 billion-plus float of the QR National coal, freight and infrastructure servicing business... Read more Qantas is turning around the decline in yields after they bottomed out last year, but it is still experiencing weakness in earnings from its international flights.... Read more The Australian Securities Exchange could come under pressure to quiz Wayne McCrae's CuDeco about a Chinese media report that led to shares in the copper explorer surging 54cents, or 13 per cent, to $4.70... Read more The thawing of specialist credit markets is helping to inject new competition into the home loans market, now dominated by the big four banks. The raising of $1.3 billion in funds by smaller mortgage lenders was announced yesterday... Read more When the chief executive of the Commonwealth Bank, Ralph Norris, recently caught up with investors in New York, talks soon turned to the topic of the heady Australian housing market.... Read more Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese is to visit Beijing this month to attend a high-powered conference... Read more The financial planning industry faces further uncertainty following calls for its two main representative bodies to merge... Read more Independent News & Media's decision to sell down its Indian newspaper interests has renewed speculation that the troubled group may do the same with its 32.2 per cent stake in local group APN News & Media.... Read more ANZ Banking Group has received approval for its proposed acquisition of Royal Bank of Scotland's Taiwan and Singapore businesses.... Read more The NSW Government faces another transport project running into financial difficulty after a ratings agency warned of a possible funding shortfall in a contract to deliver 626 train cars to Sydney's rail network... Read more Discount domestic airfares this month remained 28 per cent lower than at the same time last year... Read more Lachlan Murdoch needs a new lawyer to tend his share of the News Corporation fortune after his representative on the family's multibillion-dollar trust, Allens Arthur Robinson partner Michael Ball, was announced as the NSW Supreme Court's next judge yesterday... Read more An airport alert has been issued by WA police after one of the nation's biggest former mortgage brokers, who is under investigation for alleged fraud, left the country.... Read more A message trail may bolster the case of two Australians charged over a Dubai land deal... Read more The liquidator of Bill Express is probing cash transfers of $12.5 million to two companies... Read more Gambling machine maker Aristocrat Leisure announces a board revamp and says it will seek directors who can offer experience in the US market... Read more Clean Seas Tuna has talked down the significance of the higher-than-expected mortality rate that cruelled its latest fish spawning efforts... Read more Cazaly Resources says its ongoing battle for control of the huge Rhodes Ridge iron ore deposit is unaffected by a court ruling that ousted a mining heavyweight... Read more It's the recession they never quite had but perhaps should have. Despite the highest level of unemployment among the five main age groups and the lowest rate of wage rises, 18-to-24-years-olds of generation Y quickly shrugged off the economic downturn and spent their way out of trouble.... Read more Malcolm Maiden. Two pieces of news balanced each other yesterday to underline the subtle ways the government stimulus is feeding into the economy... Read more Adele Ferguson. Investors believe a merger between National Australia Bank and AXA would be bad for the country and reduce the number of investment products now available, a survey has found... Read more David Symons. One of the final steps in the deconstruction of Macquarie Group's collection of satellite funds unfolded yesterday... Read more Matthew Stevens. Almost everyone understandably celebrates the sort of David versus Goliath success story visited upon BHP Billiton... Read more Stephen Bartholomeusz. While Prudential is paying a fancy price for AIG's Asian businesses, it's nowhere near as fancy as AXA SA's valuation of AXA APH's Asian operations. Here's why... Read more Barry Fitzgerald. Atlas Iron is paying one of the biggest ever takeover premiums to secure control of Aurox Resources and the 10 to -12 million tonnes of additional iron ore export capacity it can deliver. But there is broad agreement it has got a bargain... Read more Elizabeth Knight. You have to love West Australian entrepreneurs. During an investor briefing held by iron ore junior, Atlas, on its takeover of the even smaller hopeful Aurox, the predator's chief executive David Flanagan was asked if he was confident that the target's principals (and largest investors) would vote in favour of the deal... Read more
International Headlines U.S. Market Report. An updated report of the latest action on Wall Street... Read more World Market Report. An updated report of the worlds' latest market movements... Read more China's exports surged 46% in February, figures show, raising hopes of a strong recovery in global trade... Read more The U.S. Federal Reserve's pledge to keep interest rates close to zero for an "extended period" has come under criticism from policy makers who say it's restricting their room to maneuver as the economy recovers... Read more The unemployment rate decreased in nine U.S. states in January and climbed in 30, signaling the thawing of the labor market is not broad-based... Read more The earthquake in Chile may cost the global insurance industry as much as $US7bn, Swiss Re estimates... Read more British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia offer to give up take off and landing slots in London and New York, say EU watchdogs... Read more Bahrain's finance minister said adherence to strict Islamic rules helped his country escape the worst of the global recession... Read more Citigroup Inc., seeking capital after repaying bailout funds to the Treasury, is selling trust preferred securities as rising investor demand drives borrowing costs to near the lowest in almost five years... Read more Brazil will have its second-best harvest in the nation's history this year, the government said... Read more China Mobile Ltd., the world's biggest phone company by market value, agreed to buy 20 percent of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co. for 39.8 billion yuan ($US5.8 billion) to expand its electronic-payment business... Read more Japan's machinery orders slipped in January after the biggest jump since 2000, indicating a subdued appetite among the nation's companies to ramp up capital spending even as manufacturing passed its worst... Read more Regulators and governments around the world shouldn't rush to ban speculation on sovereign debt in the wake of the Greek financial crisis, the chairman of Britain's financial regulator said... Read more The political consensus may be that President Barack Obama's handling of the economy has been weak. The judgment of money in all its forms has been overwhelmingly positive, and that may be the more lasting appraisal... Read more After 8.6 million Chinese bought their first cars last year, General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co. are positioning themselves to compete for return customers.... Read more At least seven U.S. state attorneys general are investigating whether Monsanto Co., the world's largest seed producer, has abused its market power to lock out competitors and raise prices... Read more On November 19, 2009 Jeffrey Gundlach was named a finalist for Morningstar's award for bond fund manager of the decade. Two weeks later Gundlach was confronted, fired, and then pursued on foot out of a Los Angeles skyscraper by two lawyers working for TCW, the money management firm with $110 billion in assets where Gundlach had worked for 24 years... Read more The car company that is off to the worst start of 2010 isn't Toyota. It's Chrysler Group. Industry experts say that even though Chrysler's overall sales are down only 3% during the first two months of the year, estimates show more than half of Chrysler's sales have been to fleet customers, such as rental car companies... Read more
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