Cyclone Coming to Coromandel

February 10, 2023

Good Morning,

Cyclone Gabrielle could hammer Coromandel with up to 300mm of rain in 24 hours, Survivors of Turkey-Syria earthquake struggle to stay warm and fed, Tower says it has received 4,810 claims following the significant weather event which impacted Auckland and the upper North Island, of which more than half are for home insurance, SpaceX (SPACEa.NLB) should choose sides between Ukraine and Russia, a senior Ukrainian official announced.

Let's jump in.

Before The Bell

Markets

  • The NZX 50 lost -0.8% to 12,118.67 and the ASX 200 saw a -0.5% decrease to 7,490.30. In the US, the S&P 500 slid -1.1%, Nasdaq -1.4%, and the Dow Jones inched +0.2% higher. The Stoxx 600 gained +0.6% while the FTSE 100 added +0.3%.

Earnings and Data

  • When Credit Suisse Group’s Archegos disaster hit, its traders were in the midst of racking up a $US2.65 billion ($3.6 billion) quarter. Less than two years later, they produced a $US96 million quarter (AFR)

  • Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) on Wednesday announced a sweeping restructuring under recently reinstated CEO Bob Iger, cutting 7,000 jobs as part of an effort to save $5.5 billion in costs and make its streaming business profitable (Reuters)

  • Kellogg Co (K.N) surpassed market expectations for quarterly sales and profit on Thursday and said it would retain the plant-based meat business it had planned to spin-off (Reuters)

  • Japan's Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) posted a surprise 22% rise in third-quarter operating profit on Thursday, as a weaker yen and higher sales volumes helped the world's top automaker overcome a jolt from the soaring costs of raw materials (Reuters)

    News Summary

    • Images of driverless buses and robot waiters may make workers nervous, but an artificial intelligence (AI) expert says most jobs are safe – for now (Stuff)

    • The country’s big four power companies are likely to post a 22% increase in their combined operating profits when they report their interim results over the next three weeks, an analyst says (Stuff)

    • Jacksco had over 100 staff when it went bust, now its parent company and another linked company specialising in kerbing and roading have also gone into liquidation (Stuff)

    • Bard, Bing and Baidu: how big tech’s AI race will transform search – and all of computing (Stuff)

    • Advertisers still seeking access to the most highly-watched linear and digital platforms are among those breathing a sigh of relief after the scrapping of the TVNZ-RNZ merger (NBR)

    • Syft Technologies, which makes mass spectrometer sensors that measure air contaminants, says it will axe about 20% of its workforce and has warned it faces a “material loss” this year (NBR)

    • NZX-listed insurer Tower says it has received 4,810 claims following the significant weather event which impacted Auckland and the upper North Island, of which more than half are for home insurance (NBR)

    • The Australian’s deputy editor Sid Maher can be identified as the mysterious “senior editor” who resigned from News Corp Australia last month after complaints about his behaviour at a Christmas drinks party (AFR)

    • Pilbara Minerals chief Dale Henderson says China will be an important buyer of the company’s lithium for a long time and the middle kingdom’s dominance of battery manufacturing means it is bound to be a part of Australia’s critical minerals future (AFR)

    • ‘Street fighter’ Schwartz takes the helm at Carlyle (AFR)

    • AGL Energy has slumped to a half-year loss of more than $1 billion as it accelerates an increasingly tricky shift to renewable energy and after extended outages at its ageing Loy Yang A and Hunter Valley power plants during last winter’s electricity market crisis (AFR)

    • Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group has come out swinging at work safety authorities after being charged with failing to supply documents relating to 34 cases of alleged sexual harassment on its mine sites (AFR)

    • Greensill Capital’s key insurance agency has escalated a battle over claims, alleging the collapsed firm was “deceptive” about how it represented customers’ dealings with GFG Alliance’s metals trader Liberty Commodities (AFR)

    • Agribusiness group Elders has gone all out to improve its disclosure to investors a day after receiving a “speeding ticket” from the ASX (AFR)

    • Bingo Industries, the waste company now owned by Macquarie’s infrastructure and real estate business, says it is defying turmoil in the construction sector after posting a 46 per cent fall in profits for the last financial year (AFR)

    • An animal-welfare organization said it plans to ask a U.S. government agency on Thursday to investigate Elon Musk's brain-implant company Neuralink over records it said show potentially illegal movement of hazardous pathogens (Reuters)

    • A group of 34 Republican senators said on Thursday they would seek to overturn U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules that aim to drastically cut smog- and soot-forming emissions from heavy-duty trucks (Reuters)

    • The chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM.N), the biggest U.S. bank, cautioned against declaring victory against inflation too early, warning the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates above the 5% mark if higher prices ended up "sticky." (Reuters)

    • Elon Musk's SpaceX (SPACEa.NLB) should choose sides between Ukraine and Russia, a senior Ukrainian official said on Thursday, after the company said it was curbing Kyiv's use of Starlink internet devices for controlling drones (Reuters)

    • Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) on Wednesday laid out plans to crack down on password sharing for accounts on its streaming platform, including setting up primary location and paying a couple of dollars for an extra member (Reuters)

    • Bayer (BAYGn.DE) bowed to investor pressure on Wednesday and named Bill Anderson, most recently head of Roche's (ROG.S) pharmaceuticals business, to take over from Werner Baumann as its CEO in June (Reuters)

    • AstraZeneca (AZN.L) on Thursday said it was poised to grow in 2023 and beyond, banking on its burgeoning line-up of cancer, metabolic and rare disease drugs to pick up the pace from dwindling COVID product sales (Reuters)

    • Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) lost $100 billion in market value on Wednesday after its new chatbot shared inaccurate information in a promotional video and a company event failed to dazzle, feeding worries that the Google parent is losing ground to rival Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) (Reuters)

    • Cyclone Gabrielle could hammer Coromandel with up to 300mm of rain in 24 hours (Stuff)

    Deal Flow

    Investments / M&A

    • AGL is targeting owning up to 7 gigawatts of grid scale batteries and pumped hydro projects to drive its transition away from fossil fuels, which it says will generate more lucrative returns than wind and solar farms and underpin its return to profitability (AFR)

    • Lightsource bp, the largest solar developer and owner in Australia, has been selected to develop one of New Zealand’s largest solar development at Christchurch Airport. Lightsource was awarded the contract alongside its New Zealand partner, Contact Energy, to develop the 150MW solar project (AFR)

    • JPMorgan’s equities desk can lay claim to Thursday’s biggest trade, crossing a $337 million parcel of Whitehaven Coal shares in late afternoon trade (AFR)

    • ANZ Bank said it suffered far fewer losses than expected and said it is now growing home loans faster than its rivals, but its boss, Shayne Elliott, warned the government not to stimulate an economy the central bank is trying to cool (AFR)

    • Debt-laden GenesisCare has sold its 6 per cent stake in biotech small cap Clarity Pharmaceuticals via Wilsons’ equities desk. The block trade saw 15.36 million shares change hands at 72¢ each on Thursday, which was a 13 per cent discount to the stock’s last close at 83¢ (AFR)

    • Music licensing business and IPO hopeful Songtradr is back on the acquisition trail, snapping up UK-listed 7digital Group with proceeds from a recent capital raising (AFR)

    • The hot young thing in Australian resources, Chalice Mining, is back on investors’ radars, with movement on its share register prompting all sorts of theories about deep-pocketed strategic players buying in (AFR)

    • Norway's sovereign wealth fund has sold its stakes in three Adani Group companies worth just over $200 million since the start of the year, the world's largest stock investor said on Thursday (Reuters)

    • Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company owned by Warren Buffett, has sold 4.235 million Hong Kong-listed shares of electric vehicle maker BYD (002594.SZ) for HK$1.09 billion ($139 million), a stock exchange filing showed (Reuters)

    • Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) has taken another step towards creating a standalone investment bank by buying Michael Klein's advisory boutique, but gave few clues on Thursday about potential investors who might back the business with new capital (Reuters)

    • StanChart Is Still in Play as Abu Dhabi's FAB Explores $35 Billion Offer (BBG)

    • Credit Suisse to Buy Klein’s Boutique in $210 Million Deal (BBG)

    • The UK competition regulator told Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday that it has serious reservations about the company’s pending acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard, but that one way to assuage those concerns would be to divest blockbuster franchise Call of Duty (BBG)

    • J.M. Smucker Sells Pet-Food Brands to Post for $1.2 Billion (BBG)

    • Advanced Info Service Pcl, Thailand’s biggest telecommunications group, is considering options for its tower business including a stake sale, according to people familiar with the matter (BBG)

    • Toshiba Corp. dropped after the Nikkei newspaper reported that a group led by Japan Industrial Partners Inc. submitted a final offer of about ¥2 trillion ($15.2 billion) to buy the iconic Japanese conglomerate (BBG)

    VC & Fundraising

    • Smart cities and infrastructure engineering business LVX Global has picked up $4 million in a pre-IPO round, locking in supporting from existing investor Bombora and former WINconnect boss Tom Patsakos (AFR)

    • British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has lined up banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to provide debt financing for a bid to buy Manchester United FC, a person familiar with the matter said (BBG)

    • Singapore Wins Record $17 Billion Investment Pledge on Reopening (BBG)

    Equity Raises

    • NZX-listed Freightways’ plan for a dual-listing is building momentum, with its chief executive telling NBR a move onto the ASX is slated for this year (NBR)

    • Weight loss device maker Allurion Technologies Inc. is nearing a deal to go public through a merger with a blank-check company backed by former Medtronic Plc Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Omar Ishrak, according to people familiar with the matter (BBG)

    • Solar power equipment maker Nextracker Inc. raised $638 million in an initial public offering, exceeding its target for the first major US listing of 2023 (BBG)

    • Hesai Group, a developer of sensor technologies used in self-driving cars, has raised $190 million in an initial public offering, the largest by a Chinese issuer in the US market since the crash of Didi Global Inc. in 2021 (BBG)

    Debt

    • Westpac told AUD debt investors to expect to be shown a three-year and five-year senior unsecured medium-term note in the coming days. The notes were likely to be rated AA- by S&P and Aa3 by Moody’s (AFR)

    • BlackRock Inc-led investors in Saudi Aramco's gas pipeline network are set to raise $4.5 billion from a sale of bonds to refinance a multi-billion dollar loan that backed their stake purchase, a bank document showed on Thursday (Reuters)

    Daily Picks

    • Survivors of Turkey-Syria earthquake struggle to stay warm and fed (Stuff)

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