Author: Shawn Hickman
CRN -7.05%: shares in the coal miner were on the back foot today after announcing potential takeover talks with US giant Peabody had ended without a proposal. While there was no reason provided, Peabody has recently taken issue with Queensland’s royalty tax changes, while Coronado’s lack of thermal coal was also thought to be a sticking point.
PDL -0.22%: Putting the three way takeover tussle to one side, Pendal (PDL) reported full year results this morning that were solid, all key metrics were in line to slightly above market expectations with revenue of up 8% to $629.7m and underlying profit up 17%.
DMP -11.71% held their AGM and provided a trading update for the 1st 17wks of 1H23. Network sales were down -1.8% with FX headwinds to blame, however stripping that out they are still only +4.7% up versus +8% this time last year.
EML -35.71%: the payment solutions company slumped to a near-10-year low today after further struggles with European regulators. This time the UK has taken action to stop the company from onboarding any new customers to their Prepaid Financial Services business in the UK on similar issues that the company is working with the Central Bank of Ireland to fix.
CXL -18.98%: the green industrial solutions business was smacked today after it was notified two separate grants announced by the Morison Government had been pulled by the new Labor Government.
MPL -18.12%: the health insurer was hit hard after shares began trading again. The company said data of its 3.8m customers had been breached, with the hack likely including data of previous clients taking the total over 4m. The data was accessed after the login details of an employee were compromised, with data including names, addresses and Medicare numbers available through the access. Medibank said it would see one off costs associated with the breach of between $25-35m, but may increase if customer remediation is required as a result.
RWC -13.37%: Hit hard today after reporting weaker than expected quarterly sales while they talked to tougher and unpredictable conditions ongoing. The plumbing supply business that generates nearly 70% of its revenue from the US saw volumes decline in all regions except Australia.
TPG delivered a disappointing result 2-months ago sending the stock down -12% on the day, finally closing at $5.80. We gave our position a little room to prove itself before exiting, a quick move would have delivered a better outcome as the stock ultimately fell another -18.5% after the initial day’s plunge, reinforcing our view that “your 1st loss is your best loss in a bear market”.
MM was delighted to see HUB soar over +14% yesterday after announcing net flows of $3.0bn and FUA of $68.4bn, up 8% year on year, taking it to the number one listed platform position for net flows. Overall it was a very strong quarterly update and a definite positive to see HUB lead the independent platforms on net flows despite trading at a discount on a PE basis (valuation).
ABC -22.01%: Knocked today following a profit downgrade and the departure of their CEO. The building products company now forecast net profit after tax (NPAT) of $75-85m which compares to the consensus of $116m for FY22 (December year-end).
