For those of you who missed our live updates, here’s a quick recap.
Shares in Endeavour Group took a dive after the owner of Dan Murphy’s and BWS reported flat group sales for the pat financial year and a forecast of a return to “normal patterns of trade” as people find entertainment outside of their homes.
Macmahon posted a 5 per cent lift in full-year underlying net profit to a record $63 million despite operational challenges presented by COVID and the tight labour market, while South32 abandoned controversial plans to pursue a $US700m expansion of its Illawarra metallurgical coal operations.
Monadelphous Group reported an 11 per cent rise in annual net profit to $52.2m, boosted by a leap in demand for its mining maintenance services. But group revenue fell 1.2 per cent to $1.93 billion, with the company citing skills shortages as its main challenge.
Building products supplier Boral reported a statutory net profit of $961m last financial year, and Pilbara Minerals celebrated a maiden full-year profit of $561.8m as it cashed in on soaring lithium prices.
Interim profit at Scentre Group leapt nearly 20 per cent to $479.8m on returning retail foot-traffic, but Myer announced it would close another store in Victoria’s Frankston.
Mining contractor Perenti Global swung back into the black with a $42.5m annual profit, while global mining equipment manufacturer Austin Engineering snapped up Mainetec in a deal worth $19.6m.
Plus, PwC chief executive Tom Seymour described the big-four firm’s past 12 months as “an incredibly successful year”. The firm doubled staff bonuses following a stunning rebound out of the pandemic with record revenue and profit.
Join us again tomorrow when Seven Group Holdings, Coles Group, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises, Iluka Resources, Sonic Healthcare, and AUB Group report their earnings.
The ASX closed down 85.1 points, or 1.2 per cent, on Tuesday to 6961.80.
Global mining equipment manufacturer Austin Engineering has snapped up Mainetec in a deal worth $19.6 million.
Perth-based Austin said the purchase of the high performance Hulk mining bucket design, build and refurbishment business would complement its own product and market base and open doors for Mainetec in North and South America.
Mainetec is expected to deliver revenue of more than $40 million, on an annualised basis, for the current financial year.
“The key benefits of this acquisition for Austin are the ability to expand our mining bucket offering in Australia and then to offer that into our other markets around the world,” managing director David Singleton said.
“Mainetec is a technology-led business that has developed the Hulk range of buckets suited to demanding applications and has also become a key supplier in Australia for dipper buckets used on rope shovels.”
The deal also includes up to $6m of incentive payments in the form of Austin shares if further performance targets are met over a three-year period.
That’s how PwC CEO Tom Seymour described the past 12 months as the big-four firm doubled staff bonuses following a stunning rebound out of the pandemic with record revenue and profit.
The result supported a record 108 per cent leap in staff incentive payments to $75 million last year.
The workforce also received an average 9 per cent salary increase. Partners pocketed at least 10 per cent more.
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Major shopping centres are well and truly back, with Scentre Group’s tenants bettering their pre-pandemic sales as Australians unleashed a spending blitz after the last virus restrictions eased.
Interim profit at Scentre, whose 42 Westfield properties include Perth’s Carousel, Booragoon, Innaloo and Whitford City shopping centres, leapt nearly 20 per cent to $479.8 million on returning foot-traffic, new leasing deals and increased rent proceeds.
Sales for the June half-year within the Scentre properties jumped 5 per cent, or $800m, on the same time last year to $12b, up $500m on the trading in 2019 before COVID-19 hit.
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We love a good chart. So does CommSec and this one (pardon the pun) speaks volumes ...
Consecutive rate hikes by the Reserve Bank to tame inflation has hit Australia’s growth engine, the services sector, with a key indicator showing a contraction.
The preliminary S&P Global Australia manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index fell from 55.7 in July to a 12-month low of 54.5 in August. And the services PMI slid from 50.9 in July to a seven-month low of 49.6 in August.
Meanwhile, the composite PMI, which combines both factory and services activity, fell from 51.1 in July to a seven-month low of 49.8 in August.
Commsec senior economist Ryan Felsman said the index showed business activity in the private sector had declined for the first time since January, when the COVID-19 Omicron virus variant wave disrupted output.
The contraction coincided with a 1.75 percentage points hike in interest rate hikes since May - the most aggressive policy tightening since 1994.
In the S&P Global survey of businesses, respondents in the services sector said they were experiencing higher costs of energy, labour and fuel, as supply chain disruptions continued.
In response, firms continued to pass on rising input costs to customers and consumers, with selling prices rising sharply in August.
The local share market has dropped for a second day ahead of this week’s Jackson Hole symposium for central bankers amid fears the talk there will turn hawkish.
Kogan has crashed to a full-year net loss of $35.5 million, compared with a $3.8m profit the previous year, after being caught out with too much inventory in 2022 and non-cash equity-based compensation payments.
Profts were also affected by provisions of $17m for the likely payment of two more tranches of the Mighty Ape purchase price. Kogan bought the Kiwi online retailer for $122m in December 2020.
Kogan’s revenue fell 8 per cent to $718.5m.
Founder and chief executive Ruslan Kogan said the consistency of growth of the eCommerce market in Australia has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which Kogan had adjusted for when the business started to double in sales “almost overnight”.
To ensure there was stock available, Mr Kogan said the company increased both its range and volume of inventory, as well as its logistics footprint, to match the expected level of growth.
“We were wrong. As the true volatility of the situation settled in — caused by stay-at-home orders and lockdown ambiguity — eCommerce did not continue to grow as anticipated,” Mr Kogan said in a frank statement accompanying Kogan’s results.
“This led to us holding excess inventory, and an associated increase in variable costs and marketing costs to sell through the inventory. As we’ve discussed at length through regular updates this past year, profitability in FY22 was impacted.”
The board did not declare a dividend.
Kogan said its results in 2022 included non-cash equity-based compensation expenses of $26.6m - up from $15.6m the previous year - driven by the award of options after the company’s annual general meeting in November 2020.
The options were granted to Mr Kogan and chief financial officer and chief operating officer David Shafer.
Shares in Endeavour Group have nosedived after the owner of Dan Murphy’s and BWS reported flat group sales for the past financial year and a forecast of a return to “normal patterns of trade” as people find entertainment outside their homes.
The group on Tuesday reported an 11.2 per cent jump in net profit to $495 million from flat year-on-year group-wide sales of $11.6 billion.
Endeavour said it had seen a continued recovery in its hotels operations since July following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions but the trend in its retail trade pointed to a return to normal.
“Looking ahead, we expect the retail drinks and hospitality markets will continue to return to normal over the course of F23,” it aaid.
“While the return of social connection and events are positive and this is reflected in our first seven weeks of trading, there are a variety of factors which may impact performance in the year ahead, including inflation, limited team availability and the potential for supply chain disruption.”
Its shares were down almost 11 per cent at 10.20am to $7.37.
CEO Steve Donohue said the group’s results were delivered against a backdrop of ongoing impacts from COVID-19, severe weather events, team shortages and supply chain disruptions.
“Australians are returning to socialising in hospitality settings, and the trend towards discovering new drinks is continuing,” he said.
“While we anticipate that the operating environment will remain challenging, I’m confident our team of exceptional people, our customer-focused strategy, and our disciplined approach to financial management will enable us to continue to deliver for our customers, partners, team members and shareholders.”
The board decalred a final dividend of 7.7c a share.
Global mining equipment manufacturer Austin Engineering has snapped up Mainetec in a deal worth $19.6 million.
Perth-based Austin said the purchase of the high performance Hulk mining bucket design, build and refurbishment business would complement its own product and market base and open doors for Mainetec in North and South America.
Mainetec is expected to deliver revenue of more than $40 million, on an annualised basis, for the current financial year.
“The key benefits of this acquisition for Austin are the ability to expand our mining bucket offering in Australia and then to offer that into our other markets around the world,” managing director David Singleton said.
“Mainetec is a technology-led business that has developed the Hulk range of buckets suited to demanding applications and has also become a key supplier in Australia for dipper buckets used on rope shovels.”
The deal also includes up to $6m of incentive payments in the form of Austin shares if further performance targets are met over a three-year period.
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