Author: roymorgansocial

Shape of banks’ dividend recovery will be more U than V

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 & 18 : 24-Jul-20

Brendan Sproules of Citigroup expects Australia’s banks to resume paying dividends in the December quarter, at a reduced payout ratio of just 40 per cent. He does not expect banks’ payout ratios to return to pre-coronavirus levels until fiscal 2022. Westpac and the ANZ Bank recently put their interim dividends on hold, while Citigroup expects the Commonwealth Bank and Bendigo & Adelaide Bank to withhold their dividends for the second half of 2019-20.

CORPORATES
CITIGROUP PTY LTD, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, BENDIGO AND ADELAIDE BANK LIMITED – ASX BEN

Curb on mega-payouts to celebrities

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Original article by Chris Merritt
The Australian – Page: 2 : 24-Jul-20

A proposed national model law will be on the agenda of a Council of Attorneys-General meeting on 27 July. The national model laws includes changes to defamation laws, including replacing the existing defence of statutory qualified privilege for media companies with a new defence of public interest journalism. The model bill will also seek to address the rising cost of defamation payouts, amid a growing trend for judges to bypass existing caps on damages for causing harm to a person’s reputation.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. COUNCIL OF ATTORNEYS-GENERAL

Pressure on PM for permanent dole rise

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Original article by Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 4 : 22-Jul-20

The coronavirus supplement for JobSeeker recipients will be reduced from $550 per fortnight to $250 from 25 September. This will reduce the maximum unemployment benefit for a single person to about $800 a fortnight. The revised JobSeeker allowance will apply until the end of 2020, although the federal government has signalled that it is likely to be extended for a further three months. Australian Council of Social Service CEO Cassandra Goldie has called for a permanent increase in JobSeeker when the coronavirus supplement ends. The requirement that JobSeeker recipients must apply for at least four jobs per month will be reinstated from 4 August.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE

Consumer Confidence highest for L-NP supporters

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 22-Jul-20

New research into the weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index shows L-NP supporters have far higher Consumer Confidence in June at 103.3 than either ALP supporters (91.8) or Greens supporters (85.9). In fact, the Consumer Confidence of L-NP supporters has been consistently higher than either ALP or Greens supporters over the last year following the unexpected victory of the L-NP at last year’s Federal Election. Consumer Confidence for supporters of all three parties bottomed during the height of the national lockdown in April but the lowest Consumer Confidence for L-NP supporters, of 87.3 in April, was still higher than for Greens supporters during either of the last two months in both May and June. Consumer Confidence for ALP supporters hit a low of only 73.0 in April, lower than for supporters of either the L-NP or Greens. L-NP supporters have consistently been more confident than both ALP and Greens supporters across all five indicators of the index. The biggest contributors to the higher L-NP scores relate to views on the Australian economy and whether now is a good or bad time to buy major household items.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

Regulator won’t appeal wagyu and shiraz case

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Original article by John Kehoe
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 22-Jul-20

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has ruled out an appeal against Westpac’s court win over allegations that it breached responsible lending laws. The full Federal Court recently upheld an August 2019 ruling in Westpac’s favour, and ASIC is believed to have decided that it will not take the matter to the High Court. ASIC will instead urge the federal government to make changes to credit laws in order to clarify the responsible lending rules.

CORPORATES
WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA, HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Revamp will push 2.5m off JobKeeper

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 22-Jul-20

The federal government’s revised JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme is expected to cost $16.6bn over six months. The new tiered JobKeeper scheme will feature two levels of payment based on the number of hours worked, rather than the existing fortnightly payment of $1,500 for all eligible workers. The lower JobKeeper payments will take effect from 28 September and will be further reduced from early January. Treasury has forecast that the number of people receiving JobKeeper will fall from 3.5 million at present to 1.4 million in the December quarter, and just one million in the March quarter.

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Iron ore war rages as BHP ramps up

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Original article by Nick Evans
The Australian – Page: 13 & 19 : 22-Jul-20

BHP has advised that production at its Pilbara iron ore mines rose to a record 281 million tonnes in 2019-20, while shipments totalled 283.3 million tonnes. BHP has forecast that its iron ore shipments for 2020-21 will be within the range of 276 to 286 million tonnes. BHP’s average realised price for iron ore rose by 16 per cent in 2019-20 to $US77.36 a wet metric tonne, excluding shipping costs. Meanwhile, Brazilian rival Vale has reported iron ore output of 25.1 million tonnes for June, and it still expects full-year production of between 310 and 330 million tonnes.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, VALE SA

Up $11bn, Forrest has a profitable pandemic

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Original article by John Stensholt
The Australian – Page: 15 : 22-Jul-20

The share price of pure-play iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group has more than doubled since March. Its market capitalisation topped $51bn on 21 July, making it one of the 10 biggest companies on the Australian sharemarket. Fortescue’s founder Andrew Forrest is now estimated to have total wealth of about $20bn, with the value of his stake in the company having increased by more than $11bn since the coronavirus-induced sharemarket rout in mid-March. Forrest and his wife are also high-profile philanthropists, having donated more than $2bn to their Minderoo charitable foundation.

CORPORATES
FORTESCUE METALS GROUP LIMITED – ASX FMG, THE MINDEROO FOUNDATION PTY LTD

W-League grows TV viewership as Australia & NZ awarded hosting rights for 2023 Women’s World Cup

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 22-Jul-20

New research from Roy Morgan shows the W-League’s TV viewership is growing even as other Soccer competitions experienced viewership declines. A record high 879,000 Australians watch the W-League on TV, up 265,000 (+43%) on a year ago. However, the W-League’s TV viewership growth was not enough to make up for the declines in viewership for the FIFA World Cup, English Premier League, A-League and other forms of Soccer compared to a year ago. Now 4,098,000 Australians watch any of the listed Soccer competitions, down from 4,577,000 a year ago – a drop of 479,000 (-10%). The FIFA World Cup is easily the most popular Soccer competition on Australian TV with 3,391,000 viewers, although this is down 471,000 (-12%) on a year ago. Although the W-League is growing its TV viewership a concern for the local sporting authorities will be the decline in TV viewership for the men’s A-League, now with 1,748,000 viewers, down 305,000 (-15%) on a year ago. The local men’s competition has now been overtaken by the English Premier League which has a TV viewership of 1,794,000.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Satisfaction of Australia’s banks improves amid COVID-19

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 22-Jul-20

New data from Roy Morgan shows that customer satisfaction with Australia’s banks was at 79.5% in May, up 0.2% points on April and up 1.1% points from May 2019. The biggest improvement in customer satisfaction over the last year was from Australia’s four major banks, with satisfaction up 1.4% points to 77.2% in May. Commonwealth Bank has the highest satisfaction of the four majors in May, closely followed by NAB, ANZ and Westpac. Mutual Banks continue to have the edge in customer satisfaction and are up 0.7% points from a year ago, to 89.2%. The leading Mutual Bank for satisfaction is Bank Australia, closely followed by Bank First and Beyond Bank. The foreign banks operating in Australia have a high customer satisfaction of 85.5% in May, but this is down 0.3% points from a year ago. Of the foreign banks ING is a clear leader for satisfaction ahead of HSBC and Citibank. These are some of the latest findings from Roy Morgan’s ‘Customer Satisfaction report on Consumer Banking in Australia’. This report is based on in-depth interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 consumers per annum in their homes.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN 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, BANK AUSTRALIA, BANK FIRST, BEYOND BANK AUSTRALIA, ING BANK (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED, HSBC BANK AUSTRALIA LIMITED, CITIBANK PTY LTD