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ASB Securities Morning Brief for Friday, 30 July 2010
New Zealand Headlines Perth-based telco iiNet has won the battle for Telecom's AAPT, Australia's third-largest telecommunications company. The complex transaction will see Telecom's struggling consumer arm hived off to iiNet for up to $60 million... Read more Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard raised the Official Cash Rate a quarter point to 3% as expected, while predicting a less aggressive path for further increases, given subdued domestic demand and a fragile global economy... Read more For a central bank governor pushing up the benchmark interest rate, Alan Bollard was distinctly downbeat and dovish yesterday... Read more The Reserve Bank's interest rate rises are damaging the country's house building sector, according to Jennian Homes... Read more Credit growth slipped into negative territory last month, led by a continuing contraction in bank lending to the business sector... Read more A Chinese businessman alleged to be behind ambitious plans to invest up to $1.5 billion in New Zealand's dairy industry has only recently severed his business links with former National Prime Minister Jenny Shipley.... Read more Mainfreight is aiming to almost double annual revenue to $2 billion by 2015, based mainly on increased overseas earnings particularly in China, the US, and South America... Read more The New Zealand dollar tumbled after Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard said interest rate increases will be more moderate than he had previously flagged and said the currency’s strength is inconsistent with the weaker economic outlook... Read more Ryman Healthcare, the Christchurch-headquartered aged care operator, is looking for a suitable site for its first Australian village, shareholders were told at Thursday’s annual general meeting... Read more Outspoken critic of New Zealand corporate governance Bruce Sheppard summed up his decade-long tenure at the head of the Shareholders' Association as "gone, forgotten, but still here"... Read more Chief executives' salaries will be next target for the Shareholders' Association under new chairman John Hawkins... Read more REDGroup Retail, the owner of the Whitcoulls and Borders book stores, is likely to be in breach of banking covenants at the end of August after difficult trading in Australia... Read more Revenues from the Kupe field have overtaken those from the highly successful Tui field, in Kupe's first full quarter of operation for 15 per cent shareholder New Zealand Oil and Gas... Read more Protests in India organised by Hindu nationalist political party Shiv Sena against imports of New Zealand dairy products... Read more Wellington Drive Technologies, the North Shore-based manufacturer of highly efficient electric motors, has won an international endorsement from leading German testing authority, the VDE Institute... Read more Endace, the Auckland-based global marketer and seller of internet security technology products, gained a $4.44 million investment grant through TechNZ to accelerate its development program... Read more New Zealand's biggest locally owned optometrist wholesaler has been placed in receivership, following increased competition at home and a failed push into Australia... Read more Troubled businessman Terry Serepisos is out, Prime Minister John Key is up $5 million, and Sir Peter Jackson's movie empire is making him one of the richest businessmen in the country.... Read more John Durie. Telecom New Zealand's exit from the iiNet share register last night heralds the closing stages of its disastrous foray into the Australian telecommunications market... Read more Daily Sharechat. Rakon's 400,000 euro (NZ$709,220) purchase of France-based competitor Temex is positive and should hasten the turn-around in both company's under-performing and loss-making French operations, says Jason Familton, an analyst at First NZ Capital... Read more NZ Market Report. New Zealand rose to the highest level in more than a month, after a decline in the New Zealand dollar perked investor appetite for companies earning overseas revenue... Read more
Australian Headlines Australian Market Report. Australian stocks fluctuated to end barely lower, with gains by miners countered by falls in energy stocks... Read more More than three decades after he started his media-buying business, Harold Mitchell has sold out to Aegis in a $363 million takeover deal.... Read more iiNet has won the battle for AAPT, the nation's third-largest telecommunications company... Read more iiNet is making a strategic play to increase its market share and stop a competitor buying its takeover target... Read more China has hailed the $5.5 billion west African iron-ore venture between its state-run Chinalco and Rio Tinto as a "powerful union"... Read more The British entrepreneur Richard Branson has accused Qantas's boss, Alan Joyce, of running scared as Virgin Blue steps up efforts to snare lucrative corporate clients from its arch rival... Read more Bidget airline Virgin Blue has snagged a valuable travel contract shuttling hundreds of NBN Co executives around the country for the next two years... Read more British gambling giant Ladbrokes has been included alongside Tabcorp and Tatts Group on the shortlist for Victoria's wagering licence.... Read more Directors of potentially insolvent companies may avoid an insolvent trading charge if they take and act on independent professional advice... Read more Listed companies will come under further pressure to appoint women directors.... Read more The regional pay TV company Austar reported a 41 per cent drop in first-half profits yesterday, to $20.7 million. Its bottom line has been hurt by derivative losses and what the chief executive, John Porter, called a ''challenging subscriber environment''... Read more An ATM business backed by two former federal politicians has been banned from listing on the stock exchange by the corporate regulator... Read more Australia's online stockbroking industry is set for a major shake-up, with CMC Markets slashing its brokerage fee as it chases market share... Read more REDGroup Retail has warned it may breach banking covenants when reporting annual earnings on August 28... Read more Macquarie Group is poised to water down this year's earnings outlook after fragile global markets and sluggish merger activity hurt its first-quarter performance... Read more Small businesses have delivered a wake-up call to the banking industry over the cost of credit and its availability, targeting the big four banks, which are engaged in a turf war over which of them supports the sector the most... Read more The mining magnate Andrew Forrest has momentarily halted fire on the government's proposed resources tax to address an issue arguably closer to his heart: indigenous employment.... Read more Indigenous Chamber of Commerce chairman Warren Mundine has launched the First Australian Business Awards to promote Aboriginal enterprises.... Read more How a foreign posting went horribly wrong for two Jetstar executives.... Read more Troubled Centro Properties Group has struck deals to extend or refinance $US2.7 billion ($3bn) of debt in its US business... Read more The Salvation Army, a bikie gang and the global computer giant Apple have topped a new study into Australia's most effective brands.... Read more Nathan Tinkler's Aston Resources is confident of pulling off its $1.5 billion float plans, shrugging aside choppy market conditions and the recent failure of the Valemus public offering... Read more Cash operating margins at its New Zealand gold mines have more than tripled for Oceana-Gold due to the closure of its out-of-the-money hedge book earlier this year... Read more The chief executive of the struggling independent supermarket chain FoodWorks has fallen on his sword after presiding over a disastrous expansion plan... Read more The regime change in stockmarket supervision will give Eric Mayne a chance to practice what he preaches... Read more The dollar closed almost half a US cent higher, recovering partially from the one cent fall after yesterday's lower than expected inflation figures... Read more Australians are expecting a slowdown from last year's breakneck property price growth to continue over the next 12 months... Read more QR National has bolstered its senior management ranks by poaching Optus technology head Lawrie Turner as it prepares to float later this year... Read more Stephen Bartholomeusz. Harold Mitchell's $363 million share exchange with Aegis Group demonstrates that the seasoned media buyer is looking to expand his presence in the industry rather than lay a path for an exit... Read more David Symons. What a difference six months makes. At the start of the year REDGroup Retail, the owner of the Borders and Angus & Robertson book chains, figured prominently in the suite of retail floats pencilled in for 2010... Read more Andrew Main. Speculation is focused on what Macquarie Airports will do with the proceeds of a potential $250m stake sale in Mexican airport operator ASUR... Read more Ian McIlwraith. The pawnbroking chain Cash Converters International, which has built its business on lending money to the marginalised, seems to have done a big favour for its largest shareholder - and possibly at the expense of other investors... Read more Elizabeth Knight. Richard Branson is in town. He is here to launch a financial services company - for the second time. Virgin's previous attempt five years ago was not so much a spectacular failure but an endeavour that evaporated over time, product by product... Read more Malcolm Maiden. Centro continues to be a property group with a greatly diminished sharemarket footprint, and a humungous debt footprint... Read more Glenda Korporaal. Aunty Beryl and mining magnate Andrew Forrest have a common aim -- to bust the myth that indigenous people don't understand business... Read more Matthew Stevens. Commonwealth institutional concern over the controversial pathway to privatisation of Queensland's coal freight network has been confirmed... 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 Oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil see profits almost double in the week rival BP suffered record losses... Read more China allows the publication of an International Monetary Fund staff report on its economy for the first time since 2006... Read more China sees little need for an imminent increase in interest rates, standing apart from Asian counterparts that are raising borrowing costs as the region shrug offs risks from advanced economies... Read more Visa Inc., the world’s biggest payments network, fell as much as 5 percent after saying the U.S. Department of Justice may sue the company over a policy that bars merchants from charging extra to customers who pay with credit cards... Read more Toyota is recalling almost 430,000 vehicles in the US and Japan amid concern over steering problems... Read more The former chief executive of Enron, Jeffrey Skilling, has applied for bail. His lawyer says his conviction for fraud will be overturned... Read more California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a fiscal state of emergency, putting pressure on lawmakers to pass a state budget that is now more than a month overdue... Read more The euro climbed to $US1.31 for the first time in almost three months as European confidence in the economic outlook rose to the highest level in more than two years this month and German unemployment decreased... Read more French Labor Minister Eric Woerth is being questioned by police in connection with their investigation into the finances of L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, the prosecutor's office in Nanterre, France, said... Read more The owner of Europe's biggest airline, Lufthansa, has reported a net loss for the first half of the year after disruption from the volcanic ash cloud and from a pilots' strike... Read more As increasingly wealthy Chinese consumers eat more imported fresh fish, lobster and cheese, they are helping global air cargo revenue rebound from the worst decline in five decades last year... Read more Fosun International Ltd., part owner of Club Mediterranee SA, plans investments in European luxury brands and red wine companies to build alliances for expansion in China, which is forecast to become the biggest luxury market.... Read more Corporate chiefs may seem hardboiled, but they can be sensitive, too. Take the ruckus they've been raising over what they perceive to be rough treatment from the Obama White House.... Read more Nintendo Co., the world’s largest maker of video-game consoles, posted its first quarterly loss in more than two years as the stronger yen cut the value of overseas earnings and demand for DS handheld players fell... Read more Global brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev has suffered a defeat in a long-running battle over the rights to the Budweiser beer brand.... Read more Robert Peston. Thursday's results from seven FTSE 100 companies provide some kind of picture of the health and prospects of Britain's biggest companies... Read more Paul La Monica. Exxon Mobil, which is currently the most valuable company in the U.S. with a market capitalization of $286 billion, has to listen for the footsteps of Apple... Read more
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