Author: roymorgansocial

National Government support down to 49.5% as New Zealand growth slows to 0.2% in March Quarter – slowest in two years

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Morgan Poll Update – Page: Online : 24-Jun-15

A New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll on voting intention, which was carried out in June 2015, shows that support for the ruling National Party has fallen by 4.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent since May. Support for the Labour Party has risen by 0.5 per cent to 26 per cent, and support for a potential Labour/Greens alliance has increased by three per cent to 39 per cent. Roy Morgan Research executive chairman Gary Morgan says the National Party lost support in June following New Zealand’s slowest GDP growth (0.2%) in two years during the March quarter. He notes that the ANZ-Roy Morgan New Zealand Consumer Confidence Rating has fallen for the last two months, to 119.9 in June. However, New Zealand Government Confidence was at 135.5 in June, with 62.5 per cent of New Zealand electors saying the nation is "heading in the right direction".

CORPORATES
MORGAN POLL, ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, NATIONAL PARTY OF NEW ZEALAND, LABOUR PARTY (NEW ZEALAND), GREEN PARTY OF AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND, CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF NEW ZEALAND, THE MAORI PARTY, UNITED FUTURE PARTY (NEW ZEALAND), NEW ZEALAND FIRST PARTY, ACT NEW ZEALAND, INTERNET PARTY, MANA PARTY

Guylian’s sweet spot for growth

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Simon Evans
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 24-Jun-15

Guylian currently has three chocolate outlets in Sydney, but the group intends to pursue national expansion. Patrick Freriks, the operations director of Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe, says the aim will be to have 30 outlets across Australia within four years. He stresses that the chocolate cafes will offer a different range of Guylian products to those available in supermarkets.

CORPORATES
GUYLIAN BELGIAN CHOCOLATE CAFE, LOTTE CONFECTIONERY COMPANY LIMITED, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, WOOLWORTHS LIMITED – ASX WOW

Share price slumps after profit warning

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Matt O’Sullivan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 : 24-Jun-15

Australian-listed Flight Centre Travel Group has advised that its 2014-15 underlying profit before tax will be within the range of $A355m to $A365m. Its previous guidance was for earnings of $A360m to $A390m, with the downgrade attributed to factors such as competition from online travel groups and slowing growth in Australia’s domestic travel market. Flight Centre shares closed nearly 14 per cent lower at $A37.51 on 23 June 2015.

CORPORATES
FLIGHT CENTRE TRAVEL GROUP LIMITED – ASX FLT, AIRBNB AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BOOKING.COM BV, PRICELINE.COM, GAINSDALE PTY LTD, MACQUARIE EQUITIES LIMITED

Aldi hits back at claims of shirking tax

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 18 : 24-Jun-15

Discount grocery chain Aldi says it fully complies with its Australian tax obligations, and has advised that its local income tax bill for the year to 31 December 2013 totalled $A81.6m. The German-owned group was responding to comments by Wesfarmers CEO Richard Goyder, who had questioned whether Aldi was paying sufficient tax in Australia. Aldi boasted local sales of $A6bn in 2014, which was around 13 per cent higher than previously, and it is gaining market share at the expense of its rivals.

CORPORATES
ALDI STORES SUPERMARKETS PTY LTD, WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, ALDI EINKAUF GMBH & CO OHG, WOOLWORTHS LIMITED – ASX WOW, METCASH LIMITED – ASX MTS, IGA, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, APPLE INCORPORATED, MICROSOFT CORPORATION, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, MOODY’S INVESTORS SERVICE INCORPORATED

Credit card rates up despite cash rate drop

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Clancy Yeates
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 24-Jun-15

Data from the Reserve Bank of Australia shows that the average credit card interest rate has risen to 19.75 per cent since the currency monetary policy easing cycle began in 2011. The cash rate has fallen to just two per cent over the same period. MWE Consulting’s Mike Ebstein attributes this to the fact that the proportion of credit card debt that is accruing interest has fallen from 73.7 per cent to just 65.6 per cent, with more consumers opting to pay their entire credit card debt each month.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, MWE CONSULTING PTY LTD, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, CONSUMER ACTION LAW CENTRE

Greens push for probe into finance scandals

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Adele Ferguson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 24-Jun-15

The Federal Government and the Opposition will not support the Australian Greens’ motion for a royal commission into misconduct in the financial services industry. Liberal Democratic Party senator David Leyonhjelm and Family First Party senator Bob Day also oppose a royal commission, although independent senator Nick Xenophon and the National Party’s John Williams will support the motion. IOOF is the latest financial group to embroiled by claims of misconduct.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY, FAMILY FIRST PARTY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, IOOF HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX IFL, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, MACQUARIE PRIVATE WEALTH MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION

Netflix is the new black: 1 million users, more than 3 times rivals Presto, Stan, Quickflix & Foxtel Play combined

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 23-Jun-15

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey has found that 1,039,000 Australians aged 14+ in 408,000 households had subscribed to the Netflix streaming video on demand service in May 2015. In contrast, 97,000 Australians were subscribed to the Presto joint venture between Foxtel and Seven West Media, while 91,000 had a subscription to Stan, which Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media launched in January. Meanwhile, Australian-listed Quickflix had just 43,000 subscribers and 40,000 had Foxtel Play, the streaming version of its pay-TV service.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, PRESTO ENTERTAINMENT PTY LTD, SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, STAN ENTERTAINMENT PTY LTD, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED – ASX FXJ, QUICKFLIX LIMITED – ASX QFX, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS, SINGTEL OPTUS PTY LTD

Australia languishes in bottom five

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Mark Mulligan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 27 : 24-Jun-15

Global asset managers are bearish about the outlook for returns from Australian shares over the next three years, according to a report commissioned by Principal Global Investors. The report’s author, Amin Rajan, says the survey shows that markets in Russia, Australia, Latin America, Canada and Eastern Europe will deliver the worst returns over this period, while the best returns will be achieved by the US, India, Japan, so-called frontier markets and Asia.

CORPORATES
PRINCIPAL GLOBAL INVESTORS, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD

Write-downs in mining nearly erase deal value

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Mark Mulligan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 27 : 24-Jun-15

Citigroup has warned that there may be further asset impairment charges in the global mining industry, particularly in the metallurgical and coking coal sector. The firm estimates that around 90 per cent of the value of mergers and acquisitions transacted by large mining groups since 2007 has been written off. Aluminium, iron ore and nickel assets have generated the most impairment charges over the last eight years, while Rio Tinto has the highest level of impaired assets.

CORPORATES
CITIGROUP INCORPORATED, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, ANGLO AMERICAN PLC, VALE SA, ALCAN INCORPORATED

Healthscope offloads pathology business

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Tim Binsted
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 : 24-Jun-15

Crescent Capital has paid $A105m for the pathology assets of Australian-listed Healthscope, with the deal comprising a cash component of $A92.5m and a $A12.5m promissory note. Healthscope CEO Robert Cooke says the deal will allow the group to focus on its core business of private hospitals. In addition to Healthscope’s pathology laboratories and collection centres, the private equity firm will also buy a portfolio of six skin clinic.

CORPORATES
HEALTHSCOPE LIMITED – ASX HSO, CRESCENT CAPITAL PARTNERS LIMITED, SONIC HEALTHCARE LIMITED – ASX SHL, PRIMARY HEALTH CARE LIMITED – ASX PRY, TPG CAPITAL LP, THE CARLYLE GROUP, CLSA AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NATIONAL DENTAL CARE PTY LTD, LIFEHEALTHCARE GROUP LIMITED – ASX LHC, NATIONAL HEARING CARE LIMITED, SOUTHERN SUN SKIN CANCER CLINICS