Next Week At A Glance – 30 Sep-4 Oct 2024

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For a more comprehensive preview of next week’s events, please refer to “The Monday Report”, published each Monday morning. For all economic data release dates, ex-div dates and times and other relevant information, please refer to the FNArena Calendar.

The week that was in Australian Finance:

-The Australian market continued to experience volatile trading with the index broadly unchanged on the week as the US S&P500 notched up record highs with the prospect of lower interest rates and a soft landing in play.

-RBA board delivered no change to the cash rate with Governor Bullock remaining committed to bringing down inflation. Wednesday’s August CPI came in as expected at 2.7% annually with lower electricity prices from the government subsidy in play.

-The PBOC announced a suite of stimulus packages for the Chinese economy which boosted Australia’s material sector, a standout for the week, as investors rotated out of banks into bulk miners. The Australia dollar also firmed against the US dollar and the gold price reached an all-time high. Uranium stocks were well-bid with fourteen global banks committing to more financial support for nuclear energy and Microsoft inking a deal with Constellation Energy for a 20-year nuclear energy contract.

-Crude oil came under pressure despite middle east geopolitical tensions. Saudi Arabia was reported as abandoning its US$100 oil price target, with OPEC preparing to increase supply in December.

-Retail giants Coles Group ((COL)) and Woolworths Group ((WOW)) were back in the hot seat for alleged misleading price discounting practices with an ACCC investigation; while Brickworks ((BKW)) and Premier Investments ((PMV)) reported earnings with Smiggle disappointing investors.

Corporate news in the week that was:

-According to The Australian, Incitec Pivot ((IPL)) has approached Elders ((ELD)), Nutrien, and Ridley Corp ((RIC)) for the sale of its fertilisers business

-UK target Rightmove has turned down REA Group’s ((REA)) enhanced takeover offers

-Fletcher Building ((FBU)) is moving forward with an equity raise of up to NZ$700m, after earlier dismissing such plans

-E&P Financial Group ((EP1)) is preparing a $10m placement and voluntary buyback as it plans to delist from the ASX

-Affinity Equity Partners has secured the $750m deal to buy Lumus Imaging from Healius ((HLS))

-Select Harvests ((SHV)) is raising $80m through an entitlement offer and placement

-The ACCC is suing Coles ((COL)) and Woolworths ((WOW)) over misleading discounts, calling it as significant as the Qantas ghost flights case

-Telix Pharmaceuticals ((TLX)) is acquiring US radiopharmacy network RLS, enhancing its North American manufacturing and distribution platform

-South32 ((S32)) has been awarded a US Department of Energy grant to advance its Hermosa project

-Nickel Industries ((NIC)) has acquired a 51% stake in Indonesia’s Siduarsi nickel-cobalt project, one of four active nickel contracts of work in the country

-SG Fleet’s ((SGF)) major shareholder, Super Group, has halted the sale of its 53% stake due to difficulties in finding a cash buyer

-The Queensland government plans to transform Star Entertainment’s ((SGR)) looming tax bill into a Treasury loan, offering the casino operator much-needed financial relief

-Premier Investments ((PMV)) no longer looking to divest Smiggle in early 2025

-Fortescue ((FMG)) signed a $4.06bn deal with Liebherr to create one of the world’s largest zero-emission mining fleets, the biggest contract for both firms

-Macquarie Asset Management ((MQG)) and Aware Super have secured a co-investor for their $6bn bid for TPG Telecom’s ((TPG)) fibre network

-Hanwha has abandoned its $1bn bid for Austal ((ASB))

-The Takeovers Panel rejected shareholders’ request to delay Energy Resources of Australia’s ((ERA)) capital raise

Next week at a glance

For a calendar of earnings result releases and a summary of earnings results to date, refer to FNArena’s Corporate Results Monitor (https://www.fnarena.com/index.php/reporting_season/)

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