STRATEGIC PLANNING – AUSTRALIA

Staff cuts risk ‘dangerous spiral’ at Myer

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Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 : 28-Jul-15

Citigroup’s Craig Woolford says Myer Holdings’ plan to scale back its permanent workforce could backfire by adversely affecting customer service and in turn leading to lower sales. The department store group also proposes a 20 per cent reduction in working hours for casual and part-time employees. Myer argues that the changes will result in greater rostering flexibility during periods when staff are most in demand. Myer shed 80 employees at its head office earlier in 2015.

CORPORATES
MYER HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX MYR, CITIGROUP PTY LTD, DAVID JONES LIMITED, WOOLWORTHS HOLDINGS LIMITED, CLSA AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, SHOP, DISTRIBUTIVE AND ALLIED EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION

BHP iron ore to grow despite tough 2016

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Original article by Amanda Saunders
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 & 22 : 23-Jul-15

BHP Billiton’s iron ore production topped 254 million tonnes in 2014-15, and the group expects to increase output by six per cent in the 2015-16 financial year. BHP anticipates lower production of copper, petroleum, metallurgical coal and thermal coal in 2015-16, although Glyn Lawcock of UBS expects production of most of these commodities to rise in the following year. BHP aims to reduce its iron ore production costs to $US16 per tonne in 2015-16, compared with its break-even price of about $A32 per tonne.

CORPORATES
BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, SOUTH32 LIMITED – ASX S32, NICKEL WEST

Woolworths to offload two key DJs sites

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Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 23-Jul-15

Woolworths Holdings CEO Ian Moir says the South African group plans to reinvest the proceeds of David Jones asset sales into the department store business. Woolworths is set to sell one of the David Jones stores in both the Melbourne and Sydney CBDs. The two stores could fetch around $A400m in total, and Moir says the remaining two stores in the CBDs will be expanded and upgraded. The David Jones food halls will also be upgraded at a cost of $A8m.

CORPORATES
WOOLWORTHS HOLDINGS LIMITED, DAVID JONES LIMITED, COUNTRY ROAD LIMITED, WITCHERY FASHIONS PTY LTD, TRENERY, SEED, FCUK

PureProfile raises $12 million to buy Sparc ahead of IPO

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Original article by Rose Powell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 18 : 20-Jul-15

Market research firm PureProfile expects to post revenue of $A20.6m in 2015 and $A28.1m in 2016. The firm is slated to list on the Australian sharemarket on 29 July 2015, following a $A12m IPO. Proceeds of the float will be used to expand the PureProfile business, which is based on paying consumers to complete surveys online. PureProfile will also acquire a media trading company called Sparc and open an office in New Zealand.

CORPORATES
PUREPROFILE LIMITED – ASX PPL, SPARC MEDIA, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, WALT DISNEY COMPANY, FITNESS FIRST AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BLUE OCEAN EQUITIES PTY LTD

Wine buyers splash out

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Original article by Simon Evans
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 : 17-Jul-15

Liquor retailers have reported a strong rise in sales of Treasury Wine Estates’ more upmarket wine brands in response to a limited offer in which they can buy a $A3,000 wine cabinet for just $A1,199. Consumers who spend at least $A500 on wine brands such as Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Wynns Coonawarra can buy the wine cabinet at the heavily discounted price in July and August 2015. A smaller wine cabinet is also available at a deep discount to people who spend at least $A180 on wine.

CORPORATES
TREASURY WINE ESTATES LIMITED – ASX TWE, PENFOLDS WINES PTY LTD, WOLF BLASS WINES PTY LTD, WYNNS COONAWARRA ESTATE PTY LTD, DAN MURPHY’S, WOOLWORTHS LIMITED – ASX WOW, BOCCACCIO CELLARS PTY LTD, WINE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Mt Gibson iron ore mine may close if prices stay low

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Original article by Tess Ingram
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 22 : 16-Jul-15

Mount Gibson Iron achieved a 15 per cent reduction in costs at its Extension Hill iron ore mine in Western Australia during the second half of 2014-15. The group aims to further reduce costs in 2015-16, with production slated to rise from three million tonnes per annum to at least 3.5 million tonnes. However, CEO Jim Beyer has not ruled out closing the mine if the iron ore price remains subdued. The steel input is trading at around $US50 per tonne.

CORPORATES
MOUNT GIBSON IRON LIMITED – ASX MGX

IPO still draw for retailers

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Original article by Sue Mitchell, Simon Evans
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 20 : 15-Jul-15

KPMG’s Robert Bazzani notes that a number of retailers and consumer-oriented businesses are looking at an Australian IPO, despite recent sharemarket turmoil. However, he questions whether companies should consider an IPO if their market capitalisation would be less than $A100m, arguing that they risk being overlooked by fund managers and equities analysts, Upcoming IPOs include Beston Global Food Company, Costa Group and Amaysim.

CORPORATES
KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BESTON GLOBAL FOOD COMPANY LIMITED, COSTA GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX CGC, AMAYSIM AUSTRALIA LIMITED – ASX AYS, ADAIRS LIMITED – ASX ADH, BURSON GROUP LIMITED – ASX BAP, BEACON LIGHTING GROUP LIMITED – ASX BLX, GODFREYS GROUP LIMITED – ASX GFY, LOVISA HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX LOV, BELLAMY’S AUSTRALIA LIMITED – ASX BAL, THE PAS GROUP LIMITED – ASX PGR, GREEN’S FOODS LIMITED, PACIFIC BRANDS LIMITED – ASX PBG, BRAND COLLECTIVE, KATHMANDU HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX KMD, MACPAC WILDERNESS EQUIPMENT, URBAN PURVEYOR GROUP PTY LTD

Vodafone packages discounted mobile products for SMB

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Original article by David Ramli
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 20 : 15-Jul-15

Vodafone Australia currently boasts about six per cent of the nation’s small business telecommunications market, but it aims to lift this to 18 per cent by 2019. Vodafone’s Stuart Kelly expects this segment of the market to be worth more than $A5bn by 2019, compared with $A4.5bn at present. As part of its strategy to target small business customers, Vodafone will launch new mobile telephone packages under its "Ready Business" brand.

CORPORATES
VODAFONE AUSTRALIA LIMITED, VODAFONE HUTCHISON AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS, SINGTEL OPTUS PTY LTD, UECOMM LIMITED

Tigerair set to lift global game

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Original article by Jamie Freed
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 18 : 13-Jul-15

Virgin Australia’s international division posted an operating loss of $A49.5m in the first half of fiscal 2015, with a fall in yields due to rising competition on Asian routes such as Bali, Fiji and Thailand. Virgin plans to deploy its Tigerair Australia budget offshoot on these routes from August 2015. However, passengers are not expected to receive Velocity reward points for Tigerair flights that were previously provided by Virgin.

CORPORATES
VIRGIN AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX VAH, TIGER AIRWAYS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, JETSTAR AIRLINES PTY LTD, VELOCITY FREQUENT FLYER PTY LTD, ASPIRE AVIATION PTY LTD, AIR NEW ZEALAND LIMITED – ASX AIZ, FIJI AIRWAYS, AIRASIA X SDN BHD, AIRASIA SDN BHD, GARUDA INDONESIA, SINGAPORE AIRLINES LIMITED, ETIHAD AIRWAYS, DELTA AIR LINES

Telstra’s Penn lays out vision

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Original article by Tony Boyd
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 40 : 10-Jul-15

Telstra has indicated that it is willing to host streaming video on demand providers’ content on its servers, as part of its push to become Australia’s market leader among aggregators. The SVOD sector is a growth industry in Australia, with Telsyte reporting that the nation boasted two million active subscriptions to such services at the end of June 2015. A recent Roy Morgan Research survey also showed that Netflix boasts about one million subscribers, just months after officially launching in Australia.

CORPORATES
TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS, TELSYTE PTY LTD, ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, STAN ENTERTAINMENT PTY LTD, PRESTO ENTERTAINMENT PTY LTD, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF AUSTRALIA, SINGTEL OPTUS PTY LTD, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED – ASX FXJ, QUICKFLIX LIMITED – ASX QFX, TESLA MOTORS INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE, NATIONAL BASKETBALL LEAGUE, ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP, NOMURA AUSTRALIA LIMITED, NBN CO LIMITED