Author: roymorgansocial

New chief confronts huge task at AMP

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Original article by Joyce Moullakis
The Weekend Australian – Page: 21 & 25 : 3-Apr-21

Analysts are generally positive about the appointment of Alexis George to succeed Francesco De Ferrari as CEO of embattled wealth manager AMP, but note the challenges that she will face. George is currently deputy CEO at the ANZ Bank, and will take up her new role in the September quarter. AMP’s shares have fallen more than 45 per cent since De Ferrari became CEO in December 2018. AMP is still in talks with Ares Management regarding the sale of its private markets division.

CORPORATES
AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, ARES MANAGEMENT CORPORATION

Breaking silence on ATO

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Original article by Robert Gottliebsen
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 20 : 1-Apr-21

Businessman John Dahlsen has revealed the onerous demands that the Australian Taxation Office makes on the nation’s 500 largest private companies. The owner of Victoria-based building materials supplier Dahlsens estimates that complying with the ATO’s request for information about its operations would require the company to submit about 1,000 pages of documentation. The ATO also wants this information to be provided within 27 working days. Dahlsen says the ATO’s implied threat that it will subject companies to audits if they fail to supply all requested information is an abuse of power and process.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, DAHLSENS BUILDING CENTRES

Foxtel can halve Australian drama production under new broadcasting bill

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Original article by Amanda Meade
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 1-Apr-21

Screen Producers Australia CEO Matthew Deaner has questioned the federal government’s decision to slash Foxtel’s local drama quota in its new broadcasting bill. Foxtel is currently required to allocate 10 per cent of its drama budget to producing Australian content, but the bill will reduce this to five per cent. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has accused the government of favouring its "Murdoch mates"; she has also criticised the bill for failing to impose local content quotas on streaming video providers such as Netflix.

CORPORATES
FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, SCREEN PRODUCERS AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, NETFLIX INCORPORATED

Third IPO tilt values Latitude at $2.6bn

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Original article by Cliona O’Dowd, Jared Lynch
The Australian – Page: 13 & 19 : 1-Apr-21

Latitude Financial is seeking to raise $200m via an IPO; the non-bank lender and ‘buy now, pay later’ provider is slated to list on the Australian sharemarket in the week beginning 19 April. The IPO will be open to institutional investors, Latitude employees and broking firms. Latitude has made two previous attempts to list on the sharemarket; it shelved an IPO worth $1bn in 2019 due to lack of sufficient interest from investors.

CORPORATES
LATITUDE FINANCIAL GROUP LIMITED

Gig workers, truckie safety, industrial deaths on Labor’s agenda

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 4 : 1-Apr-21

Delegates at Labor’s two-day national conference have backed key measures in the party’s industrial relations platform, including minimum entitlements for workers in the gig economy and the introduction of national industrial manslaughter laws. Labor will also abolish the Australian Building & Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Commission if it wins the next federal election, and scrap the government’s building code and union demerge laws.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. REGISTERED ORGANISATIONS COMMISSION

CITIC ruling a bonanza for Palmer

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Original article by Brad Thompson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 1-Apr-21

The Supreme Court of Western Australia has issued draft orders outlining the terms for CITIC to acquire Balmoral, an entity controlled by Clive Palmer which holds the mining rights to an iron ore deposit in the Pilbara. This will give CITIC access to an additional one billion tonnes of iron ore. Palmer receives about $523m a year in royalties from CITIC’s existing iron ore operations in WA.

CORPORATES
CITIC LIMITED, SUPREME COURT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Platinum fears bloody end to mania

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Original article by Richard Henderson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 27 & 33 : 1-Apr-21

Platinum Asset Management CEO Andrew Clifford warns that the ‘speculative mania’ in growth stocks is not sustainable and will eventually end. He believes that rising yields on long-dated bonds will be the catalyst for the demise of the boom at the speculative end of the sharemarket. Clifford expects investors to re-embrace cyclical stocks as the domestic economy opens up in the COVID-19 pandemic and hard-hit sectors such as travel and leisure recover.

CORPORATES
PLATINUM ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED – ASX PTM

Bluesfest cancelled, restrictions for Byron Bay after man tests positive

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Original article by Mary Ward, Sarah McPhee
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 1-Apr-21

New South Wales has recorded its first locally-acquired COVID-19 case in 14 days, after a Byron Bay resident tested positive. The man had attended the same venue that hosted a bachelorette party which has been linked to one of the Brisbane clusters. The NSW government has responded by cancelling Byron Bay’s popular Bluesfest music festival and reimposing coronavirus restrictions across four shires in the region. Bluesfest organisers had hoped to attract over 16,000 music fans on each day of the event, which had also been cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic.

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Stocks on track for bumper year

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 13 & 19 : 1-Apr-21

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 3.1 per cent during the March quarter, and 15.1 per cent in the first nine months of 2020-21. The local sharemarket may be on track for its best financial-year performance since fiscal 2013, when it gained 17.3 per cent. Lynas Rare Metals, Virgin Money and Zip Co were the top performers during the quarter, each posting gains of at least 40 per cent. The benchmark index had shed 11 per cent in 2019-20, due to the coronavirus-induced slump in the second half.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, LYNAS RARE EARTHS LIMITED – ASX LYC, VIRGIN MONEY UK PLC – ASX VUK, ZIP CO LIMITED – ASX Z1P

Building approvals bounce back on HomeBuilder

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Original article by Michael Bleby
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 39 : 1-Apr-21

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that approvals for stand-alone homes increased by nearly 14 per cent month-on-month in February, to 14,072 in seasonally adjusted terms. Approvals for apartments and townhouses increased by 49 per cent to 5,350; however, this followed a 39 per cent fall in January. Economists say the federal government’s HomeBuilder scheme has been a major catalyst for the strong demand for housing.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS