Author: roymorgansocial

Turnbull seals ABCC return with water deal

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Original article by David Crowe
The Australian – Page: Online : 30-Nov-16

The Senate seems set to pass the Federal Government’s bill to reinstate the Australian Building & Construction Commission. Senator Nick Xenophon will support the bill after the Government agreed to meet with state premiers regularly to increase water flows to the Murray-Darling river system. However, the Government has yielded to lobbying by organisations such as the Australian Industry Group and will introduce a two-year transition period for enterprise bargaining agreements to comply with the new building code.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION, NICK XENOPHON TEAM, THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP, AUSTRALIAN MINES AND METALS ASSOCIATION (INCORPORATED), CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, LEND LEASE GROUP LIMITED – ASX LLC, PROBUILD PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, KANE CONSTRUCTIONS PTY LTD, CIMIC GROUP LIMITED – ASX CIM, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF AGRICULTURE AND WATER RESOURCES

Action-packed! Gen Z and the rise of athleisure wear

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Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 29-Nov-16

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey has found that 8.1% of Australians aged 14+ (1.6 million people) bought men’s and/or women’s sportswear in an average four-week period during the year to September 2016, compared with 7.0% in 2011. The survey also shows that Australians’ annual expenditure on sportwear has risen from $A1.1bn to $A1.5bn over this period. While Generation X accounts for the largest share (31.6%) of total dollars spent on sportswear, this is considerably less than their share in 2011 (35.9%). In contrast, Generation Z’s contribution to Australia’s total annual outlay on sportswear has almost doubled in the same period, from 14.2% to 26.4%. Baby Boomers are the only other generation that have grown their share of the total dollars spent on sportswear (currently, they account for 18.6% of total dollars spent, up slightly on 17.9% in 2011).

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED

Bleak view of Fairfax prospects

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Original article by Darren Davidson
The Australian – Page: 21 : 29-Nov-16

Citi has a "sell" recommendation on Fairfax Media, and values the company at $A0.70 per share. In contrast, Citi values the Domain property listings business at $A0.80 per share. The firm estimates that Fairfax would incur total costs of about $A330m if it opted to discontinue its print newspapers to focus on its digital operations. However, Citi notes that Fairfax’s digital revenue fell by 4.5 per cent in the first half of 2015-16.

CORPORATES
FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED – ASX FXJ, CITIGROUP PTY LTD, DOMAIN.COM.AU, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, CARSALES.COM LIMITED – ASX CAR, REA GROUP LIMITED – ASX REA

OECD urges interest rate hikes in 2017

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Original article by Jacob Greber
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 29-Nov-16

The OECD states in its latest global economic outlook that the Reserve Bank of Australia is likely to begin increasing official interest rates in late 2017. It also argues that the prospect of rate rises in the US will allow the RBA to act without any concern about putting upward pressure on the Australian dollar. Meanwhile, the OECD forecasts that Australia’s economic growth will rise toward three per cent in 2018, while it concludes that there is still scope for the Federal Government to increase spending on infrastructure projects.

CORPORATES
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

LNG giants face bill for underpaid royalties

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Original article by Paul Garvey
The Australian – Page: 19 & 22 : 29-Nov-16

The royalty regime for the North West Shelf LNG project is under scrutiny following a review by the Australian National Audit Office. Amongst other things, the ANAO concluded that there are deficiencies in the way royalty payments are calculated, while the project’s partners may not be entitled to all of the deductions which they have claimed. A spokeswoman for Woodside Petroleum says the company has strict compliance procedures regarding royalty payments, and any underpayment is unlikely to exceed $A11.6m.

CORPORATES
WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, NORTH WEST SHELF LNG PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND SCIENCE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF MINES AND PETROLEUM, BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, BP PLC, CHEVRON CORPORATION, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, JAPAN AUSTRALIA LNG PTY LTD, MITSUBISHI CORPORATION, MITSUI AND COMPANY LIMITED

Iron, coal rebound to lift rates

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Original article by David Rogers, Barry FitzGerald
The Australian – Page: 19 & 22 : 29-Nov-16

Coal and iron ore are currently trading at prices that are significantly above the forecasts made in the Australian Government’s May 2016 Budget. Based on current prices, the nation’s export earnings in 2016 will be about $A80bn higher than in 2015. Tim Toohey of Goldman Sachs says this should be sufficient to avert the risk of Australia’s credit rating being downgraded. Financial markets believe that there is also now a better-than-even chance of an increase in the cash rate by the end of 2017.

CORPORATES
GOLDMAN SACHS AND PARTNERS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, BLOOMBERG LP

Unions run riot to kill workplace relations deal

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Original article by David Crowe
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 29-Nov-16

The Federal Government is said to be close to securing a deal with Nick Xenophon regarding water reform in return for his support for its bill to reinstate the Australian Building & Construction Commission. However, the Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union is launching a series of rolling stoppages at building sites in a campaign against the ABCC bill. The protected industrial ­action is aimed at putting pressure on construction firms to endorse enterprise bargaining agreements that do not comply with the new building code.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION, CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, KANE CONSTRUCTIONS PTY LTD, CIMIC GROUP LIMITED – ASX CIM, LEND LEASE GROUP LIMITED – ASX LLC, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT, MASTER BUILDERS AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED, THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP, AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (SBS)

What your mobile phone says about you

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Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 29-Nov-16

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey has found that 79% of Australia’s 16.2 million smartphone owners use either an Apple iPhone or a Samsung handset. The average Apple iPhone owner is 41 years old and earns $54,000 a year – three years younger but with $7,000 more personal income per year than the average Samsung smartphone owner. Some 54% of iPhone owners are women, while 51 per cent of Samsung owners are men. Meanwhile, compared with Apple users, more Samsung owners rent their home, work in sales, clerical or trades roles (or are retired), shop at discount stores, watch commercial television, go to theatre restaurants, play pokies, work on the car, go fishing, or play sports like cricket, lawn bowls, softball or baseball. On the other hand, Apple users are the more likely of the two groups to have a mortgage, work as managers and professionals (or be students), to go to concerts, live theatre, amusement parks and the beach, to listen to commercial radio, and do yoga or pilates.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, APPLE INCORPORATED, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS COMPANY LIMITED

Satisfaction with big four banks declines in October

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Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 29-Nov-16

A Roy Morgan Research Single Source survey has found that the satisfaction level of personal customers of Australia’s four major banks fell to 79.5% in October 2016, compared with 79.8% in September. This represents a 2.0% decline in satisfaction with the big four since May 2015, when it peaked at 81.5%. The main cause of this decline has been the big reduction in satisfaction among home loan customers, down 3.4% points to 75.8%, compared with a decline of only 0.9% to 80.4% for other customers. The CBA remains the big four market leader, with a customer satisfaction rating of 81.7% (down 0.3%), but NAB was the only one among the big four to record an increase in customer satisfaction (up 0.7% to 78.7%). Meanwhile, the mutual banking sector’s overall customer satisfaction was 91.0% in October, well above the big four’s average of 79.5%.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, GREATER BANK LIMITED, VICTORIA TEACHERS MUTUAL BANK, BANK AUSTRALIA, TEACHERS MUTUAL BANK LIMITED, BENDIGO BANK, ING DIRECT

Rio facing US probe over Mozambique

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Original article by Matthew Stevens
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 16 : 29-Nov-16

It has been revealed that Rio Tinto’s 2011 acquisition of Riversdale Mining has been the subject of a confidential investigation by the US Securities & Exchange Commission. The probe into the $US4.16bn takeover of the Mozambique-focused coal producer predates revelations over the scandal surrounding the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea. A subsequent $US3.269bn write-down in the value of the Mozambique assets in Rio’s 2012 financial accounts led to the departure of several top executives, including CEO Tom Albanese.

CORPORATES
RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, RIVERSDALE MINING LIMITED, UNITED STATES. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, GREAT BRITAIN. SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, KIRKLAND AND ELLIS LLP, INTERNATIONAL COAL VENTURES LIMITED