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Starboard pushes News Corp to sell REA Group stake

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Original article by Crystal Tse
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 18-Oct-23

Starboard Value has used an investor presentation to argue that News Corporation is significantly undervalued. The activist investor contended that News Corp could unlock more than than $US7bn ($11bn) for shareholders by divesting its 61 per cent stake in Australian-listed REA Group. The firm argued that doing so would also highlight the value of News Corp’s other assets, and it values the media group’s assets at around $US33 per share overall. News Corp’s US-listed shares are currently trading at around $US22.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, STARBOARD VALUE LP, REA GROUP LIMITED – ASX REA

Liontown shares slump as Rinehart flexes muscle

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Original article by Brad Thompson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 12-Oct-23

Shares in Liontown Resources fell from around $3 to $2.90 during intra-day trade on Wednesday, with the fall coming after Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting announced it had increased its stake in the lithium explorer to 19.9 per cent. With $3 being the price at which battery metals company Albemarle has ‘pitched’ its $6.6 billion takeover offer for Liontown, the fall in its share price was seen as a sign that investors see little chance in its bid succeeding. It may now have to abandon its offer, or work in partnership with Rinehart.

CORPORATES
LIONTOWN RESOURCES LIMITED – ASX LTR,[SPACE]HANCOCK PROSPECTING PTY LTD,[SPACE]ALBERMARLE CORPORATION

MINING CORPORATIONS – AUSTRALIA,[SPACE]INSTITUTIONAL INVESTMENTS – AUSTRALIA,[SPACE]MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS – AUSTRALIA]

Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards: Australia’s winning retailers announced

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 4-Oct-23

The annual Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards were recently awarded, with there being 16 winners in the retail categories. The bulk of the awards went to a mix of repeat winners and brands returning to the winner’s circle after some time out of the spotlight. There were 11 repeat winners, including The Reject Shop, which won the Discount Variety Store of the Year for a record breaking eleventh year in a row, and Myer, which won the Department Store of the Year for an eighth straight year. The sole first-time winner was Zambrero, the Mexican themed restaurant headquartered in Canberra, which won the award for quick service restaurant of the year, while Aldi won the award for Supermarket of the Year.

CORPORATES

RETAIL TRADE – AUSTRALIA]

Halloween hits sweet spot with Aussies – $490 million boost predicted

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Original article by
Australian Retailers Association – Page: Online : 26-Sep-23

Research from the Australian Retailers Association in collaboration with Roy Morgan shows that more than 5.3 million Australians will celebrate Halloween in 2023, an increase of 300,000 year-on-year. Those celebrating Halloween plan to do so in a variety of ways, such as attending or hosting a Halloween-themed party, decorating their homes, getting dressed up and going out, or staying home and welcoming trick or treaters. Total spending on Halloween is forecast to reach $490m, up 14 per cent on 2022; average spending per person is forecast to rise 8.1% to $93. ARA CEO Paul Zahra says the increased spend this year in the face of cost-of-living pressures demonstrates the growing popularity of Halloween in Australia, particularly for adults.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN RETAILERS ASSOCIATION, ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Content quotas won’t guarantee another Bluey, says Ten boss

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Original article by Calum Jaspan
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 22-Sep-23

The Ten Network recently rebranded its 10Shake secondary channel as Nickelodeon, a children’s-focused channel owned by US parent company Paramount that was previously broadcast on Foxtel. Paramount Australia’s chief content officer and co-vice president Beverley McGarvey says bringing Nickelodeon to free-to-air TV will give Australian children access to a larger range of content aimed at young audiences. McGarvey adds that imposing children’s content quotas would not result in another global hit like Bluey, arguing that the animated show’s success is due to the fact that it is brilliant rather than a content quota system.

CORPORATES
TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED, NICKELODEON, PARAMOUNT GLOBAL

Rinehart raid shows Liontown’s quality

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Original article by Brad Thompson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 19 : 13-Sep-23

Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has built up a 7.72 per cent strategic stake in lithium hopeful Liontown Resources. This includes the purchase of almost 60 million shares several days after Liontown’s board endorsed Albemarle’s sweetened takeover off on 4 September. Liontown chairman Tim Goyder says Hancock’s emergence on its share register demonstrates the quality of the Kathleen Valley lithium project in Western Australia. Meanwhile, Mineral Resources MD Chris Ellison has been appointed as the chairman of Delta Lithium; Mineral Resources has a 17.4 per cent stake in Delta.

CORPORATES
LIONTOWN RESOURCES LIMITED – ASX LTR, HANCOCK PROSPECTING PTY LTD, ALBERMARLE CORPORATION, MINERAL RESOURCES LIMITED – ASX MIN, DELTA LITHIUM LIMITED – ASX DLI

Lynas hit with cost blowout on rare earths plant

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Original article by Brad Thompson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 30-Aug-23

Lynas Rare Earths has reported a 2022-23 net profit of $310.7m, compared with $540.8m for the previous financial year; revenue fell from $920m in 2021-22 to $739.3m. The company received an average price of $46.20 per kilogram for its rare earths oxides, compared with an average of $60.30 per kilogram in 2021-22. Meanwhile, Lynas has revealed that the cost of building its cracking and leaching plant at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia has risen to $730m. Its previous estimate was $575m, and the cost increase has been attributed to factors such as the need to meet a deadline of 1 January to cease downstream processing at its plant in Malaysia.

CORPORATES
LYNAS RARE EARTHS LIMITED – ASX LYC

Buttrose to quit ABC as contenders circle

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth, Nick Tabakoff
The Australian – Page: 3 : 23-Aug-23

Peter Tonagh is widely regarded as the leading internal contender to succeed Ita Buttrose as the ABC’s chair. Buttrose has advised that she will not seek a second five-year term as the public broadcaster’s chair when her current term expires in March 2024. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says Buttrose was "the right chair for the right time". Tonagh is currently the ABC’s deputy chair, while other potential candidates are said to include former Foxtel CEO Kim Williams and lawyer Danny Gilbert. Meanwhile, former Q+A host Stan Grant has confirmed that he has left the ABC and intends to make a permanent departure from "daily journalism" after four decades in the media industry.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

$100m play looms for World Cup TV rights

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Original article by John Stensholt, Jessica Halloran
The Australian – Page: 5 : 16-Aug-23

Optus is believed to have paid up to $30m for the broadcasting rights to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. It has also on-sold the free-to-air rights to selected matches to Seven West Media for about $4m. FIFA has set a deadline of 19 September to submit bids for the local broadcasting rights to the next men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments; it is believed to be seeking up to $100m for the rights, following the ratings success of the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Optus, SBS and the three commercial free-to-air networks are expected to submit bids.

CORPORATES
FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION, SINGTEL OPTUS PTY LTD, SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (SBS)

What ABC viewers complained about

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Original article by Calum Jaspan
The Age – Page: Online : 16-Aug-23

The ABC’s ombudsman Fiona Cameron has revealed that the public broadcaster received a total of 11,440 complaints during the first half of 2023. Some 13 per cent related to the ABC’s editorial standards; this compares with 15 per cent across the previous three calendar years, when the ABC received an average of 23,767 complaints in total each year. Meanwhile, the proportion of complaints that were upheld rose to eight per cent in the first half of 2023, compared with an average of five per cent across the previous three years.

CORPORATES
abc (aus tv) see AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION