Iron ore could surge upon China’s return

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Original article by Timothy Moore
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 21 : 11-Feb-19

March iron ore futures closed 3.1 per cent higher at $US92 a tonne in Singapore on 8 February. Capital Economics says the spot price of iron ore could rally on 11 February, when Chinese traders return to the market following the Lunar New Year break. The tailings dam disaster in Brazil in late January may also impact on the iron ore price. Shares in BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group have rallied in the wake of the disaster, although Vale’s share price has slumped.

CORPORATES
CAPITAL ECONOMICS LIMITED, BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, FORTESCUE METALS GROUP LIMITED – ASX FMG, VALE SA, TD SECURITIES, OXFORD ECONOMICS LIMITED, MACQUARIE WEALTH MANAGEMENT, ARCELOR MITTAL SA, CITIGROUP INCORPORATED, FASTMARKETS MB

Reforms to help protect buyers

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Original article by Michael Bleby
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 11-Feb-19

State and territory building ministers agreed to a ban on the use of unsafe aluminium composite panels in new apartment buildings at a Council of Australian Governments meeting on 8 February. However, the meeting did not define "unsafe". The meeting also agreed that builders have an ongoing duty of care to apartment owners to provide a building that meets required building code standards, and that builders will face extra liability if their buildings do not comply with such standards.

CORPORATES
COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENTS, HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA, OWNERS CORPORATION NETWORK OF AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED, MASTER BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NEW SOUTH WALES PTY LTD, UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND SCIENCE

Foxtel’s Kayo quick off the blocks

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Original article by Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 25 : 9-Jan-19

Foxtel’s subscriber churn rate rose to 15.6 per cent in the December quarter, compared with 12.9 per cent in the three months to September. News Corporation CEO Robert Thomson attributes the rise in customer churn to an increase in the cost of traditional Foxtel services, but he stresses that the Kayo sports streaming service is not cannibalising pay-TV customers. Thompson adds that Kayo has attracted 115,000 subscribers – including 100,000 paying customers – since its launch in November.

CORPORATES
FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, KAYO SPORTS, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, MORNINGSTAR PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE, FOX SPORTS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Digital market abuse almost limitless: News

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Original article by Andrew White
The Australian – Page: 27 : 9-Feb-19

News Corporation has posted revenue of $US2.63bn ($3.7bn) for the December 2018 quarter, an increase of 21 per cent. EBITDA rose by 13 per cent to $US370m following the merger of Foxtel and Fox Sports, while the media group’s net profit of $US119m compares with a loss of $US66m for the same period in 2017. Meanwhile, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson has criticised the growing dominance of digital platforms in the US audiobooks market. He has called for a "regulatory reckoning" to address the issue.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, FOX SPORTS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, HARPERCOLLINS, DOW JONES AND COMPANY, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION

Free TV targets tech ad imbalance

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Original article by Lilly Vitorovich
The Australian – Page: 24 & 26 : 11-Feb-19

Free TV Australia CEO Bridget Fair has called for a level playing field with regard to the media’s political advertising rules. She says the ban on broadcasting political advertising on traditional media creates a big disincentive for advertising on commercial TV, given that the ban does not apply to digital media. Fair has welcomed the recommendations of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s review of digital platforms, but she says urgent action is needed to address competition issues in the media sector.

CORPORATES
FREE TV AUSTRALIA LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED

KFC hits it out of the park with Big Bash sponsorship

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 11-Feb-19

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey shows that 21% of Australians aged 14+ associated KFC with the Big Bash League in the year to September 2018. This rises to 40% among Australians who almost always or occasionally watch cricket on TV. However, only 3% of TV cricket watchers associate pay-TV company Fox Sports and long-term cricketing sponsor the Commonwealth Bank with the Big Bash. The Commonwealth Bank is associated far more strongly with Test Cricket, for which the bank had a long-term sponsorship arrangement. This ended in early 2017 but 24% of TV cricket watchers associate the bank with Test Cricket, ahead of the official Fast Food Restaurant of Cricket Australia, KFC, on 22%. Another long-term former sponsor, CUB’s Victoria Bitter, is still heavily associated with Test Cricket by 15% of TV cricket watchers. VB ended more than 20 years’ sponsorship of Australian cricket early in 2017.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, BIG BASH LEAGUE, KFC, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, CARLTON AND UNITED BREWERIES

Streaming eases pull-back in bank ads

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Original article by Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 18 : 8-Feb-19

Data from KPMG shows that advertising revenue for broadcast video on-demand services such as Foxtel Now and 7Plus rose 43 per cent to $61 million in the six months to December, compared to the previous corresponding period. Advertising revenue for traditional capital city free-to-air television and subscription TV fell by four per cent to $1.7 billion, with a fall in advertising by banks blamed for much of the decline.

CORPORATES
FOXTEL NOW, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED, KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Taylor blasts AGL’s high prices

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Original article by Perry Williams
The Australian – Page: 17 & 27 : 8-Feb-19

Energy Minister Angus Taylor contends that Australians should be irate by AGL’s announcement that it has made a $537 million interim net profit. He claims that AGL and other energy companies are making big profits at a time when consumers and businesses are struggling with high power prices. Taylor has also stated that comments by energy companies that the federal government’s "big stick" legislation is deterring investment is false, noting that investment in the sector will exceed $25 billion over the three years to 2020.

CORPORATES
AGL ENERGY LIMITED – ASX AGL, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, ALINTA ENERGY (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG

Global dividends on the rise

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 27 : 8-Feb-19

Data from Plato Investment Management shows that dividends increased across the majority of developed markets in 2018, with a total payout to shareholders of $1.8trn. Globally, companies in the information technology sector increased their dividends by 33 per cent in the December quarter, followed by consumer staples (up 17.9 per cent). The global materials sector is the only one that did not record growth in dividend payments. In contrast, Australia’s materials sector recorded year-on-year dividend growth of 26 per cent.

CORPORATES
PLATO INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LIMITED, STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 300 INDEX, BROADCOM CORPORATION, VISA INTERNATIONAL

Contractor stuns AMP with identity data theft

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Original article by James Frost, Misa Han
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 21 : 8-Feb-19

Former AMP contractor Yi Zheng has pleaded guilty to possessing identity information to commit an indictable offence. Police records reveal that he downloaded 20 identity documents one morning in October when working at AMP’s Kent Street office in Sydney, then sent them to his home email account before deleting them from his desktop. After AMP’s security system revealed that Zheng had downloaded a dark-web browser onto his AMP laptop, the laptop was taken from him and he was escorted from the building. He was later arrested at Sydney Airport when trying to flee to China. Zheng will be sentenced on 21 March.

CORPORATES
AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP