M69 Professional Scientific and Technical Services

Cost pressures top business concerns

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Original article by Cliona O’Dowd
The Australian – Page: 15 : 30-Apr-24

A KPMG Enterprise pre-budget survey of mid-market businesses has found that cost and margin pressures are their biggest concern, with mid-market businesses deemed as those with turnover of between $10 million and $500 million. Clive Baird from KPMG Enterprise said that the biggest help for mid-market businesses in terms of growing their operations and generating demand would be for interest rates to be lowered, while 80 per cent of those surveyed expect to see economic growth of at least 2-3 per cent this year.

CORPORATES
KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Virgin Australia, Toyota and Fortescue Metals are Most Trusted Brands in Key Industries for 2023

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 21-Nov-23

Roy Morgan has presented the annual Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards for 2023 in the mining and petroleum, automotive, utilities, food and beverage, and travel and tourism industries. Fortescue Metals Group is the most trusted brand among a field of over 20 of the most prominent mining and petroleum companies; it was the sole entrant in the category to emerge with a positive net trust rating in the 12 months to June 2023. Toyota has topped the industry rankings as the most trusted brand in automotive since Roy Morgan began interviewing Australians about trust and distrust in 2018. The hotly contested utilities category has been won by Perth-based Synergy; it overtook Melbourne-based Red Energy, who were the ‘Most Trusted Utility Brand’ since Roy Morgan began surveying on trust and distrust five years ago. In the Food & Beverage category Cadbury has emerged as the most trusted brand for the second year ahead of more than 80 rival brands. Virgin Australia emerged as the only trusted brand in the Travel & Tourism sector for 2023, taking the title of ‘Most Trusted Travel & Tourism Brand’ from rival Qantas.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, FORTESCUE METALS GROUP LIMITED – ASX FMG, TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION AUSTRALIA LIMITED, SYNERGY, RED ENERGY PTY LTD, CADBURY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, VIRGIN AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN

ASX-listed zombie companies on the rise

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Original article by Chris Herde
The Australian – Page: 17 : 30-Oct-23

Gayle Dickerson of KPMG expects the number of so-called ‘zombie companies’ on the Australian sharemarket to keep rising in 2024. KPMG’s analysis shows that there were just 22 such companies in March 2022; this has consistently risen since then, and totalled 127 in the last six months. KPMG classifies a company as a ‘zombie’ if it shows signs of the firm’s financial stress indicators for three or more consecutive quarters. Dickerson says the Australian Taxation Office’s aggressive debt collection tactics have contributed to the rise of zombie companies.

CORPORATES
KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Carbon rules could drag in commuters

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Original article by Patrick Durkin
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 10 : 23-Oct-23

Australia’s new accounting standards for carbon emissions will initially apply to large companies, before they are progressively rolled out to smaller businesses over three years. Jo Gorton from Deloitte notes that unlike some countries, the new Australian standards will not be restricted to listed companies. In addition, 15 categories of Scope 3 emissions will be covered by the new reporting regime; amongst other things, they include the emissions generated via business travel, employees commuting to work and ‘fly-in, fly-out’ workforces.

CORPORATES
DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU LIMITED

C-suite executives’ pay increases rise past inflation

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 14 : 14-Jun-23

A new report from the Governance Institute shows that 42 per cent of directors at ASX-listed companies and 71 per cent of senior executives received a pay rise in 2022. The salaries of CEOs rose by an average of 15 per cent, while the salaries of managing directors rose by an average of 14 per cent. This compares with overall wage growth of just 3.4 per cent in 2022, according to Wage Price Index data; the inflation rate in turn was 7.8 per cent at the end of 2022. Governance Institute CEO Megan Motto says the sharp rise in executive remuneration follows several years of relatively small rises in fixed pay.

CORPORATES
GOVERNANCE INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED

New overemployment trend sees Aussies earning double

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Original article by Bek Day
Herald Sun – Page: Online : 31-May-23

The shift to working from home during the pandemic has resulted in strong growth in ‘overemployment’ in Australia, whereby people are working two or more full-time jobs – often at the same time and without their employer finding out. A 2022 report from human resources software company Employment Hero found that 51 per cent of knowledge workers in Australia have a secondary income stream. A spokesman for Employment Hero says overemployment is much more common in fully remote roles and task-based jobs such as software development and computer programming.

CORPORATES
EMPLOYMENT HERO

Top CEOs to work on Australia Day

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Original article by Hannah Wootton, Lucas Baird
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 2 : 25-Jan-23

Telstra, Woodside Energy and Canva are among the Australian companies that will allow employees to work on Australia Day and have another day off in lieu. A number of CEOs at major Australian companies have advised that they intend to work on 26 January. They include Telstra CEO Vicki Brady, who says that doing so feels right to her; however, she acknowledges that the choice people make regarding how they spend Australia Day is a personal one. National Australia Bank CEO Ross McEwan will also be working on Thursday, as will REA Group CEO Owen Wilson.

CORPORATES
TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS, WOODSIDE ENERGY GROUP LIMITED – ASX WDS, CANVA INCORPORATED, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, REA GROUP LIMITED – ASX REA

De-extinction: scientists are planning the multimillion-dollar resurrection of the Tasmanian tiger

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Original article by Adam Morton
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 17-Aug-22

The University of Melbourne will work with US-based biotechnology firm Colossal in a genetic engineering project to revive the extinct thylacine. Professor Andrew Pask of Melbourne University believes that the first Tasmanian tiger joeys could be born within a decade, although Colossal CEO Ben Lamm suggests that a time-frame of six years could be realistic. The researchers aim to use gene editing to create a thylacine embryo via stem cells from the fat-tailed dunnart, which has similar DNA. The last known living thylacine died in 1936, and the species was officially declared extinct in the 1980s.

CORPORATES
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE, COLOSSAL INCORPORATED

Worker burnout up as pandemic rolls on

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Original article by Stephen Lunn
The Australian – Page: 6 : 3-Feb-22

ELMO Software has released the findings of a survey which shows that more than 20 per cent of respondents intend to actively look for a new job in 2022. The survey also found that 45 per cent of respondents feel that they are suffering from burnout, compared with 34 per cent in the first quarter of 2021. In addition, the ELMO Employee Sentiment Index survey found that seven out of 10 employees are concerned about returning to a physical workplace during the pandemic, while 42 per cent expect to continue working from home at least some of the time.

CORPORATES
ELMO SOFTWARE LIMITED – ASX ELO

RATs become potential tax pests for firms

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Original article by John Ferguson
The Australian – Page: 5 : 1-Feb-22

Businesses are having to apply to the Australian Taxation Office for guidance on whether supplying rapid antigen tests to their employees will result in them being hit with fringe benefits tax (FBT). Companies will need to meet two tests to avoid having to pay FBT on RATs, with the first being that a medical person conducts the tests. The other test that companies will need to meet is that all staff are offered an RAT, even if not all staff are actually given one. Applying the FBT to a single $10 RAT would see its cost increase to almost $20.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE