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Q4 Earnings Impact, Market Trends, and Corporate Reshuffles

Author

Maren Ishak
January 22, 2024

Good Morning,

Q4 earnings impact markets; Europe down 1.58%, Japan at 34-year high. Apple offers rare iPhone discounts in China. Kiwibank rate cuts, Ukrainian forces hit Russian spy plane, Queensland probes grocery prices. Citigroup reshuffle, Battery Ventures eyes PageUp. In fundraising, Crimson Education explores partnerships; space startups see 31% surge. A week of financial shifts and headlines.

Let’s jump in!

Before The Bell

Markets

  • The fourth-quarter earnings reporting season remained in its early stages, with only 23 companies in the S&P 500 expected to release fourth-quarter earnings reports during the week (TRP)

  • The pan-European STOXX Europe 600 Index concluded the week with a 1.58% decline in local currency terms, influenced by central bank policymakers' comments that led financial markets to reassess expectations for an early interest rate reduction. (TRP)

  • Japan's stock markets experienced a rise during the week, buoyed by yen weakness that boosted exporter performance. The Nikkei 225 Index surged 1.1%, reaching a 34-year high, while the broader TOPIX Index saw a 0.6% increase. (TRP)

Earnings & Data

  • Gaspy data shows that the average price for 91 petrol on Monday was $2.66 a litre, down 2.5% on the previous 28 days. Diesel was $2.07 and 95 $2.86. (Stuff)

  • Three of 'Big Six' US banks tap bond market post-earnings. (RT)

  • Summerset achieves record units sales in FY23 (NBR)

News Summary

Monday

  • Kiwibank cuts home loan rates (Stuff)

  • Former Australian footballer found dead in bushland (Stuff)

  • Apple offers iPhone 15 at rare discount in China as competition intensifies (RT)

Tuesday

  • Former Green MP Golriz Ghahraman was seemingly filmed checking her surroundings, before discreetly removing an item from a clothing rack in the Auckland store Scotties, video shows. (Stuff)

  • Accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton has put staff on a nine-day fortnight, for the same pay. (Stuff)

  • Ukrainian forces have destroyed a NZ$483 million Russian spy plane and badly damaged a second in a significant blow to Moscow’s air power. (Stuff)

Wednesday

  • A man who “seized upon the tragedy of the Covid pandemic as a money-making opportunity” by selling bleach as a cure for the virus, making his company more than $100,000 during the global event, has been sent to jail. (Herald)

  • Mental health experts are calling for a bipartisan effort at Parliament to further increase protections for MPs and workers, after Green MP Golriz Ghahraman's resignation. (RNZ)

  • Apple Inc.’s iPhone dethroned Samsung Electronics Co. devices to become the best-selling smartphone series over the course of 2023, the first time South Korea’s largest company has lost the top spot since 2010. (BBG)

Thursday

  • Commission outlines questions for Foodstuffs’ merger (Stuff)

  • ASB to close bank branches (Stuff)

  • Apple to Face US Antitrust Lawsuit as Soon as March (BBG)

Friday

  • Gang leader agrees to hand over $300,000 of his ill-gotten gains to the Crown. (RNZ)

  • Queensland launches inquiry into grocery price gouging following premier’s meeting with major supermarkets. (Guardian)

  • Citigroup lays off more bosses as CEO Fraser addresses managing directors. (RT)

Weekend

  • ‘$150k lost’: Covid-19 support calculated inaccurately, IR says (Stuff)

  • 100b industry: Saudi Arabia seeks Aussie help to dig up desert (AFR)

  • Elon Musk’s losing streak is heading for Tesla (RT)

Deal Flow

Investments / M&A

Australia & New Zealand

  • Whitehaven Coal had no troubles bankrolling its $6.2 billion acquisition of BHP’s Daunia and Blackwater coal mines (AFR)

  • Sydney’s Arriba Group, which provides workplace rehabilitation and NDIS services, is ready for M&A (AFR)

  • King & Wood Mallesons has been appointed to lead Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET) through a $US 2 billion refinance (AFR)

  • Queensland’s state investment fund QIC is reportedly mulling a sale of its 58% stake in New Plymouth-based electricity and gas distributor Powerco. (NBR)

  • An international private equity firm has gained approval to purchase a New Zealand-founded ed-tech company for $140 million after tracking its global success. (NBR)

  • The nation’s top bankers are cautiously optimistic about the year ahead, but bonus season will be a reminder of just how tough 2023 was to rack up fees as big deals dried up. (AFR)

  • Professional services company BlueRock has secured a $5 million capital injection from Sydney investment firm Ophir Asset Management, Street Talk can reveal. (AFR)

  • Street Talk can reveal luxury skincare brand iKOU is gathering interested parties for its first majority share sale, hoping to bring on a strategic partner to turbocharge growth. (AFR)

  • Rio Tinto is expected to update the market on its sale of Lake Macleod salt operations in WA’s Carnarvon on Tuesday morning. (AFR)

  • Street Talk understands a handful of private capital players reached out to Anglo American’s Australian outpost recently, keen to see if the company would be interested in selling its Queensland coal mines. (AFR)

  • Kinetic Group, one of the largest non-government-owned bus operators across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, wants a deep-pocketed capital partner to help it expand the business beyond buses to trains and trams. (AFR)

  • Sargon’s AET Corporate Trust business acquired by Melbourne firm (AFR)

  • Kennerley online produce business buys Supie name, website (NBR)

  • Farm and forestry land investor NZ Rural Land Company has agreed to sell a 25 per cent stake in its net land assets for NZ$44.2 million to an Australian fund managed by Roc Partners. (NBR)

Key Global

  • NYSE-listed lithium giant Albemarle pressed sell on its 4 per cent stake in Tim Goyder’s Liontown Resources after market close on Wednesday, three months after its $6.6 billion takeover bid for the company was kiboshed by Gina Rinehart. (AFR)

  • London-based mid-market private equity group Livingbridge has called in UBS’ bankers to shop its Australian waste advisory and collections business Waste Services Group (WSG). (AFR)

Other Global

  • Commerzbank merger talk resurfaces as Germany mulls company sales (RT)

  • Holcim’s Europe Head Says Firm Looking at 20 Small Acquisitions (BBG)

  • Hyundai Motor's Indian unit said it would invest 60 billion rupees (US$721.73 million) in the western state of Maharashtra, while also disclosing that it had completed the acquisition of General Motor's plant in the state. (RT)

  • CEVA Logistics, a unit of French shipping group CMA CGM, said on Friday it would buy British logistics firm Wincanton in an all-cash deal worth nearly 600 million pounds (about US$719 million). (RT)

  • Multi-Billionaire American technology-focused investment firm, Battery Ventures, has hired US investment bank William Blair to run a global buyer hunt for an 80 per cent stake in PageUp, which pitches its software as an end-to-end solution for companies to track employees. (AFR)

VC & Fundraising

  • Crimson Education has confirmed to NBR it ‘briefly explored’ an ‘inbound approach’ to raising new capital last year. (NBR)

  • Global investments in space startups jumped 31% sequentially in the fourth quarter, adding to signs of a rebound in the industry that has benefited from record launch activities and government contracts, according to a report by Space Capital on Tuesday. (RT)

Equity Raises

Australia & New Zealand

  • Kiwi unicorn Crimson Education seeks capital partner (AFR)

  • HR start up Employment Hero’s mega capital raise doubled as liquidity event (AFR)

  • Copper developer Metals Acquisition Corp to raise $200m for ASX debut (AFR)

  • South Australian copper and gold developer Rex Minerals is seeking to raise $$29.8 million in a strategic placement and entitlement offer via MA Moelis, Street Talk understands. (AFR)

  • Bell Potter readies raise for Perth robotics business (AFR)

  • Craigs sees ‘highly dilutive equity raise’ for Synlait (NBR)

Key Global

  • Mobile app provider Joint Stock Co. Kaspi.kz’s shareholders are planning to sell 9 million American depositary shares in an initial public offering. (BBG)

  • Wilsons tennis racket maker Amer Sport is planning to price its $1 billion U.S initial public offering (IPO) by the end of January, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, in the first major new share sale in 2024. (RT)

Debt, Restructuring & Bankruptcy

  • Italy has cleared the blockbuster €22 billion ($23.9 billion) sale of Telecom Italia SpA’s landline grid to KKR & Co. after a review process on an asset deemed to be of strategic interest to the state. (BBG)

The Daily Deck is sponsored by Industrial Equity, LLCmare

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