Trump Indicted ⚖️

Good Morning,

HSBC starts 'wind down' of its retail banking business in New Zealand, Pernod Ricard takes stake in New Zealand non-alcoholic firm AF Drinks, Countdown announces end to AA Smartfuel rewards, Gore Council refuses petition calling for chief exec to resign, IKEA bets on remote interior design as AI changes sales strategy, and Trump to face charges in Florida court in classified documents case.

Let's jump in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Markets were up over the past day. The NZX 50 gained +0.3%, to 11,652.84 the ASX 200 increased +0.2% to 7,138.90, the S&P 500 grew +0.9% to 4338.93 and the Nasdaq gained +1.5%. All treasury bond yields decreased.

• Manchester United shares surged as much as 30% in premarket trading on Tuesday, before paring gains, after Qatari media suggested Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani was likely to succeed with his takeover bid (CNBC)

• Shares of Japanese automaker Toyota spiked 5% Tuesday after the company announced it will introduce a full lineup of battery electric vehicles with “next generation” batteries from 2026 (CNBC)

• People listing their properties for sale on Trade Me are asking around $100,000 less than they were a year ago. Average asking prices fell nationally, and in every region monitored in May, according to the property website’s latest figures. The national average asking price was $850,150, down 10.5%, or $99,500, from $949,650 in May last year. It had dropped from $862,650 in April (Stuff)

• British wage growth soared and employment also jumped in the three months to April, raising expectations that the Bank of England will raise interest rates again, perhaps several times, to contain unrelenting inflationary pressures (RT)

• China's central bank lowered a short-term lending rate for the first time in 10 months on Tuesday, to help restore market confidence and prop up a stalling post-pandemic recovery in the world's second-largest economy (RT)

Earnings and Data

• Oracle Corp. said the company’s cloud-computing business will continue its rapid growth in the coming fiscal year, sending shares to a record high at the close. The stock gained another 4% in premarket trading. Cloud sales gained 54% in the fiscal fourth quarter to $4.4 billion, after a 45% jump in the previous period, Oracle said Monday in a statement. In the fiscal year ending May 2024, cloud revenue should increase at least as much as in the year that just ended, Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz said on a conference call after the results (BBG)

News Summary

• Māori leaders in the digital and technology field, both in Aotearoa and overseas, have been announced as finalists in the inaugural Matihiko Awards (Stuff)

• Nikola Jokić leads the Denver Nuggets to first championship as Miami Heat cooled (Stuff)

• HSBC has stopped taking on new retail banking customers, saying it will focus solely on commercial banking in New Zealand (Stuff)

• National Party leader Christopher Luxon had a fully taxpayer-funded Tesla on order for his use at the same time as he was publicly bashing the Government’s EV policy for subsidising “wealthy Tesla drivers”. The Tesla would have been for Luxon’s use, although he would not have owned it (Herald)

• Auckland-based Airwork has written off $176.5 million NZD on five aircraft leased to a Russian operator as they remain “illegally” under its control. The Boeing 757 aircraft were not to be recoverable due to sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine last February (Herald)

• A former senior political figure heading to trial on charges of abusing teen boys in West Auckland and Waikato is battling to keep his name secret for at least another year, until well after the election (Herald)

• Shoppers at Countdown will no longer be able to earn reward points to get fuel discounts through the AA from early next year. The supermarket chain has announced the end of its partnership with AA Smartfuel. AA Smartfuel director Ian Sutcliffe told the Herald the programme will end its run early in the first quarter next year after partnering with the Australian-owned supermarket chain since 2016 (Herald)

• The Gore District Council has voted not to receive a petition calling for its chief executive Stephen Parry to resign. Mayor Ben Bell and Parry are not speaking and the fallout of that relationship has caused ongoing issues for the council. A group of councillors last month called on Bell to step down but backed down from a public vote of no confidence (1 News)

• Brett Andrew Button, the driver of the bus which crashed in the Hunter Valley, killing 10 people, has been released from custody after being granted bail earlier today (9 News)

• Japan’s government plans to consider raising taxes to help fund a jump in defence spending a year later than previously stated, according to the latest draft of this year’s economic and fiscal policy plans (BBG)

• Hong Kong will ease entry rules to bring in 27,000 foreign workers to stem a manpower shortage in the financial hub (BBG)

• Toyota Motor Corp. executives are sounding more confident in their ability to build and sell millions of electric vehicles. Consumers making the transition to fully electric cars from hybrids are giving the world’s largest automaker a good indication of where the market will be in three years, Chief Technology Officer Hiroki Nakajima said during a day-long set of technology briefings last week at Toyota’s research facility near Mount Fuji (BBG)

• IKEA is training call centre workers to become interior design advisers as the Swedish furniture giant aims to offer more home improvement services and hand run-of-the-mill customer queries to an artificial intelligence bot called Billie (RT)

• Former U.S. President Donald Trump was due to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday to face criminal charges that he unlawfully kept national-security documents when he left office and lied to officials who sought to recover them (RT)

Deal Flow

Investments / M&A

• Global liquor giant Pernod Ricard has taken a stake in Auckland non-alcoholic drinks firm AF Drinks (Stuff)

• US agribusiness Bunge Ltd. agreed to buy Glencore Plc-backed Viterra for $8.2 billion USD in stock and cash, creating a trading giant capable of competing with the world’s biggest agricultural players (BBG)

• Brookfield Renewable agreed to buy a big portfolio of wind and solar farms from Duke Energy Corp. for $2.8 billion USD in a move intended to boost cash reserves (BBG)

• Pernod Ricard agreed to buy a majority stake in Canada’s Ace Beverage Group as the maker of Absolut Vodka and Jameson Irish Whiskey looks to boost its position in the growing category of pre-mixed cocktails (BBG)

• Novartis said it has agreed to acquire U.S. biotech firm Chinook Therapeutics for up to $3.5 billion USDD to boost its late-stage drug development line-up, raising the stakes in the race for a rare kidney disease treatment (RT)

• British sportswear and fashion retailer Frasers Group has forged a strategic partnership with AO World after buying an 18.9% stake in the online electricals retailer from Odey Asset Management for 75 million pounds ($94.3 million USD) (RT)

• The family of IndiGo's co-founder Rakesh Gangwal was likely to sell between 5% and 8% stake in the Indian airline's parent InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, worth up to 75 billion rupees ($909.58 million USD) (RT)

• France’s Thales lobs $176m AUD offer for cyber firm Tesserent (AFR)

VC & Fundraising

• Listed telco, computing and data centre services provider Macquarie Technology Group was raising $130 million AUD on Tuesday morning, in its first chunky capital raising since it listed nearly 24 years ago (AFR)

• Tauranga-based Enterprise Angels has raised $2 million NZD in the first close of its fourth fund where it’s targeting between $5m NZD and $10m NZD to invest in high-growth startups (NBR)

Equity Raises

• Arm Ltd., the chip designer backed by SoftBank Group Corp., is in talks with potential strategic investors including Intel Corp. to anchor what will be one of the largest initial public offerings of the year (BBG)

Debt

• Nasdaq Inc. has locked in debt financing for its acquisition of financial-software maker Adenza, proving that banks are still willing to lend to certain companies (BBG)

Daily Pick

• Sir Paul McCartney has confirmed the “final Beatles record” will be released later this year with help from AI technology and a famed Kiwi director (Herald)

Job Board

New Zealand

• ASB rural banking graduate - Apply here

• Waterman Capital investment analyst - Apply here

Australia

• Citadel Securities graduate and intern roles - Apply here

• Goldman Sachs Investment Banking Intern - Apply here

• IMC graduate and intern roles - Apply here

• Jarden

  • Graduate role - Apply here

  • Summer internships - Apply here

• Macquarie graduate roles - Apply here

• Optiver

  • Graduate role - Apply here

  • Internships - Apply here

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