Board Wars Heating Up

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Admin
September 29, 2023

Good Morning,

Westpac has lifted its home loan rates in New Zealand, Australian Transport Minister Catherine King blocked talks of Qatar fights, Evergrande halts trading, ChatGPT can now access up-to-date information, the UK will ease bank ringfencing rules & Peloton has partnered with Lululemon.

Let's jump in!

Before The Bell

Markets

  • The NZ market fell as bond yields jumped, and the Warehouse delivered disappointing results (GR)

  • The Aussie market also dropped due to a sell-off in consumer stocks after an unexpected fall in monthly sales figures. This offset the rally in the energy sector (AFR)

  • The US market finished the day flat as investors weighed up increasing oil costs & upticks in treasury yields

    • The US 10-year treasury yield hit 4.625%, its highest level since October 2007 (WSJ)

  • Oil prices have rallied up to $95 (USD) a barrel as inventories shrink (BBG)

Earnings and Data

  • Brickworks posted a 54% drop in net profit after tax to $395 million (AFR)

  • The Warehouse Group reported that annual profits had plunged 66% as margins declined 180 basis points (Stuff)

News Summary

  • Westpac has lifted its home loan rates in New Zealand (Stuff)

  • Whittaker’s Christmas special candy cane flavour has been leaked before its planned launch (Stuff)

  • Mediaworks has been referred to the NZ government enforcement team over its lack of financial statements (Stuff)

  • There are concerns about the funding of NZ Chinese Language Week by the Chinese government (Stuff)

  • The NZ ComCom is looking into an inquiry from the Warehouse over a supply issue around West-Bix’s (NBR)

  • E-scooters will be able to operate for another five years at least in New Zealand (NBR)

  • Vector is pushing for regulatory changes to help fund decarbonisation (NBR)

  • Hundreds of Australian troops will move north (9 News)

  • A report into the governance at the Australian arm of global giant PwC has been released. It slammed the revenue is king culture and made 23 recommendations (NBR)

  • Australian Transport Minister Catherine King blocked talks of Qatar fights (AFR)

  • China has lifted barriers on Australian exporters, including allowing the export of hay (AFR)

  • The fight for the Endeavour board is heating up (AFR)

  • Evergrande halts trading (BBC)

  • ChatGPT can now access up-to-date information (BBC)

  • Meta has announced AI chatbots with personality (BBC)

  • The UK will ease bank ringfencing rules (WSJ)

  • The US FTC is continuing to challenge Microsoft’s $69B (USD) acquisition of Activision Blizzard (BBG)

  • Peloton has partnered with Lululemon (CNBC)

Deal Flow

Investments / M&A

  • CoreWeave, a cloud computing provider, is nearing a stake sale to Fidelity, JPMorgan & Goanna Capital that would value the business at $7B (USD) (BBG)

  • Jonathan Milner, the founder of Abcam, a UK life sciences firm, is fighting off a $5.7B (USD) takeover offer from Danhar Corp (BBG)

  • Kereis, a French insurance broker, has started the sales process. It could fetch around €2B. Interested parties include PAI, Warburg & Aon (BBG)

  • Australian investment firm QIC is exploring a sale of CampusParc, the long-term owner of Ohio State University’s parking lease, which could be valued at over $850M (USD) (BBG)

  • Premier Investments will open Smiggle stores in the Middle East as it reignites offshore growth plans (AFR)

  • Mining giants Glencore and Anglo American are among the parties bidding for Nickel explorer Chalice Mining’s Gonneville project (AFR)

  • Short interest has spiked to 9.4% in mining company Genesis Minerals. It is up 3 times what it was two weeks ago (AFR)

  • Singapore Power, a subsidiary of Singapore investment fund Temasek, is looking to exit its 40% stake in gas and electricity distribution giant Jemena (AFR)

  • 2 Cheap Cars shareholders have approved co-founder David Sena’s purchase of a 30% stake held by disgruntled co-founder Eugene Williams (NBR)

  • High-profile investors in the US are being considered to help finance the PGA’s merger with LIV (BBG)

  • Citigroup is in talks to sell its China onshore retail business to HSBC (BBG)

  • UBS has invited bidders for Credit Suisse’s Chinese brokerage business (BBG)

VC & Fundraising

  • Melbourne-based fund manager Datt Capital has raised $25m (AUD) for its Small Companies fund and is now looking to initiate a wider raise (AFR)

Equity Raises

  • German glass company Schott’s IPO of its medical glass unit has raised €813m after being priced at €27 per share (BBG)

  • Ant’s consumer finance arm will raise $616m (USD) to resurrect growth (BBG)

  • De Grey Mining is attempting to raise $300m (AUD) (AFR)

Debt

  • Direct lending funds are working to provide £1.25B for the potential buyer of UK company Iris Software (BBG)

  • Private lenders and banks are working on financing a €1B deal to back the buyout of Kereis (BBG)

Daily Picks

  • Saudi Arabia and Russia have won big after gambling on oil cuts. Read more on it here

The Daily Deck is sponsored by Industrial Equity, LLH

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