K: Financial and Insurance Services

Australia is a key market, says Bank of Tokyo

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 1-Dec-16

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi intends to expand its presence in Australia. Randy Chafetz, the managing executive officer of the bank, says stagnant conditions in Japan will continue to result in pressure on Japanese companies to seek more promising markets in other countries, including Australia. Earlier in 2016, the bank appointed ex-ANZ executive Drew Riethmuller as head of corporate finance operations for Oceania.

CORPORATES
BANK OF TOKYO-MITSUBISHI (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, DAI-ICHI LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, MORGAN STANLEY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP

Foreign banks fill lending void

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Scott Murdoch
The Australian – Page: 23 : 30-Nov-16

Data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority shows that the average mortgage balance has risen from $A244,000 in 2015 to $A255,000. However, the value of new home loans grew by only 0.1 per cent year-on-year in the September 2016 quarter. A recent move by Australia’s major banks to reduce their lending to residential developers has also seen the value of offshore banks’ lending to local developers rise from $A1.49bn to $A2.65bn in the last year. Meanwhile, data from the Housing Industry Association shows that sales of new detached homes and apartments fell by 8.2 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively in October.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, HOUSING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION LIMITED, MORNINGSTAR PTY LTD

Santa rally looking strong after ‘great escape’

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 27 : 30-Nov-16

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 has gained 2.6 per cent so far in November 2016, and it seems poised to achieve its best performance for the month since 2005. Meanwhile, Macquarie Group is upbeat about the outlook for the benchmark index in 2017, forecasting that it will rise by 7.5 per cent to around the 5,875-point level. However, Macquarie notes that the local market could potentially be affected by a number of overseas factors in 2017.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, ORGANISATION OF PETROLEUM EXPORTING COUNTRIES, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Iron, coal rebound to lift rates

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

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

Goldman upbeat on local M&A activity

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Carrie LaFrenz
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 28-Nov-16

Data from Dealogic shows that $US98.54bn ($A132.44bn) worth of mergers and acquisitions have been announced in Australia so far in 2016. Olivia Brown and Marissa Freund of Goldman Sachs are bullish about the outlook for M&A deals, and forecast strong activity in sectors such as healthcare, technology and retail. Freund expects strong interest in local companies from suitors in Asia, North America and Europe. Brown anticipates that Chinese companies will continue to be attracted to sectors that have export potential, such as consumer products and healthcare.

CORPORATES
DEALOGIC (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD, GOLDMAN SACHS AND PARTNERS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSGRID PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. FOREIGN INVESTMENT REVIEW BOARD, TABCORP HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX TAH, TATTS GROUP LIMITED – ASX TTS, BORAL LIMITED – ASX BLD, HEADWATERS INCORPORATED, OIL SEARCH LIMITED – ASX OSH, INTEROIL CORPORATION, PACIFIC BRANDS LIMITED, HANESBRANDS, UGL LIMITED – ASX UGL, CIMIC GROUP LIMITED – ASX CIM, KATHMANDU HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX KMD, BRISCOE GROUP LIMITED, LAZARD ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED

Rally in local bank shares won’t last: CLSA

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 30 : 25-Nov-16

The share prices of Australia’s four major banks have risen by an average of nearly seven per cent since Donald Trump’s presidential election win. However, Brian Johnson of CLSA does not expect this to be sustained, noting that local and international banks are facing a number of headwinds. He adds that Australian bank stocks are expensive compared with their overseas peers, while their common-equity tier-one capital must be increased by some $A27bn.

CORPORATES
CLSA AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

Get your next home loan by video session

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

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

Hashching is conducting a pilot program for a biometric identity verification service which is to be used in processing mortgage applications. As the program complies with "know your client" banking regulations, it eliminates the need for the presence of the applicant in the bank branch. Hashching co-founder Mandeep Sodhi says he will meet with representatives of the banks to persuade them to make mortgage applications fully digital.

CORPORATES
HASHCHING PTY LTD, ISELECT LIMITED – ASX ISU, MICROSOFT CORPORATION, TYRO PAYMENTS

Trade out, quality in as blue chips re-emerge

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Jessica Sier
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 31 : 24-Nov-16

Australian-listed small-capitalisation stocks have outperformed the broader sharemarket over the last 18 months or so. However, this outperformance has been reversed in the last month, and particularly in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential election win. There has been renewed support for bank and resources stocks, due to factors such as a rise in government bond yields and commodity prices.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, PERPETUAL INVESTMENTS, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, JP MORGAN AUSTRALIA LIMITED

Recovery looks set to stay the course for year

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 31 : 24-Nov-16

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 has gained 8.6 per cent since Donald Trump won the US presidential election. The market has not staged a similar rally since December 2015, which followed a global equities sell-down prior to the rise in US interest rates. Financial markets have already priced in the next rise in US rates, so there would seem to be few factors that could potentially stall the domestic bourse’s recent rally.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, ORGANISATION OF PETROLEUM EXPORTING COUNTRIES, AMCOR LIMITED – ASX AMC, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, ARISTOCRAT LEISURE LIMITED – ASX ALL, INCITEC PIVOT LIMITED – ASX IPL, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS, SYDNEY AIRPORT – ASX SYD, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Volatility hits fund earnings

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Michael Roddan
The Australian – Page: 23 : 17-Nov-16

Data from Mercer shows that Australia’s median shares fund manager achieved a return of negative 3.1 per cent between August and October 2016. SuperRatings’ figures show that the median superannuation fund boasted a return of minus 0.7 per cent for the period, including a one per cent loss in October. Factors such as the outlook of inflation and uncertainty over the timing of a rate rise in the US weighed on financial markets in October.

CORPORATES
MERCER INVESTMENTS PTY LTD, SUPERRATINGS PTY LTD, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD