The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will grant banks, major supermarkets and retailers permission to design and implement failsafe plans in the event cash distribution heavyweight Armaguard fails.
ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh says it is “important that the parties continue their discussions”, noting cash users should ensure they can “resolve or avoid potential impacts to businesses and consumers across Australia”.
The move comes amid uncertainty around Armaguard, Australia’s largest cash distribution business which moves almost 90 percent of coins and notes around the country.
ASX 200 hits record as banks waver; DroneShield dives; Monadelphous, Star dive; Bravura soars; US Fed plots Sep rate cut
Tech, property sectors lead gains. CBA fades from record intraday high. Albemarle's Kemerton expansion halt weighs on Monadelphous. Star dives as licence suitability laid bare. ACCC ex-chair knows why Rex failed. US futures soar on Meta. Apple, Amazon results due.
That's all from the Trading Day blog for Thursday, August 1. The ASX 200 rose 0.3 per cent to record high close 8114.7 points with most sectors up after Wall Street's rally as US Fed chair Jerome Powell plots a September rate cut.
The Aussie dollar is trading near US65.28c.
Updates
ACCC gives nod to continue cash negotiations
ASX 200 hits record highs for second day running
Australia's share market hit record highs for a second day running on strong leads from the US market but erased over half its intraday gain as CBA and NAB fell.
The S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 0.3 per cent at an intraday low of 8114.7 points after rising as much as 0.7 per cent to an all-time high of 8148.7 in early trade.
Gains were led by the property, tech, energy and materials sectors, with Goodman up 3.8 per cent, Xero up 1.5 per cent, Woodside up 1.5 per cent on stronger oil prices, Rio Tinto up 1.9 per cent and Origin up
CBA fell 0.9 per cent and NAB lost 1.4 per cent after early gains.
Monadelphous lost 4.9 per cent after losing contracts with Albemarle.
The ASX index rose 3.1 per cent in the past two days and 4.2 per cent last month.
Last month it was helped by a rotation out of US mega-caps and on Wednesday it received a further boost from hope of interest rate cuts after CPI data undershot.
Thursday's rise came after the S&P 500 rose 1.6 per cent as Nvidia soared 13 per cent on bullish report from Morgan Stanley and strong results from AMD.
Meta soared 7.2 per cent after hours, lifting S&P 500 futures 0.4 per cent.
Super Retail execs contravened Fair Work Act: court documents
Super Retail Group chief executive Anthony Heraghty, chairman Sally Pitkin, director Annabelle Chaplain and another senior executive contravened sections of the Fair Work Act that surrounded the sacking of chief legal officer Rebecca Farell who has suffered a loss of earnings and bonuses, loss of future earnings, exposure to investigation, medical fees and general distress, Federal Court documents have revealed.
Ms Farrell claims the breaches and contraventions, which are described as “serious” in the court documents, have threatened her ability to work in the future as a solicitor, damaged her professional reputation and have left her exposed to regulatory investigation and possible enforcement action.
The former Super Retail chief legal officer is seeking damages, compensation, exemplary damages as well as an apology from Mr Heraghty, Ms Pitkin, Ms Chaplain and the company.
However, large parts of the court document have been redacted as it covers an alleged settlement between Ms Farrell and the company which the courts on Wednesday ruled should remained suppressed for the time being.
In court documents lodged by Ms Farrell’s lawyers and obtained by The Australian, an originating application under the Fair Work Act has revealed for the first time more details around the workplace scandal and claims of harassment and bullying now swirling around the retailer whose stores include Supercheap Auto, Rebel, BCF and Macpac.
The court document now made public details claims that Super Retail, its CEO, chairman, one board member and Kevin Figueiredo, its head of people and safety, contravened parts of the Fair Work Act and that these were a “serious contravention” within the meaning of the act, the court document states.
Ms Farrell was terminated as Super Retail’s most senior legal officer earlier this year and claims to be a whistleblower over a string of inappropriate workplace behaviours at the company including an alleged affair between CEO Mr Heraghty and its former head of HR, Jane Kelly.
New obligations for accountants
Tax practitioners will face eight additional obligations under changes to the industry’s governing code announced by the Albanese government on Thursday.
The government says the new obligations, outlined in a draft exposure, are aimed at strengthening accountability and integrity in the sector.
Accountants will now face obligations which reinforce existing prohibitions on false and misleading statements, as well as requiring them to disclose “significant matters such as prior convictions for tax offences” to clients.
Accountants will also be required to manage conflicts of interest and maintain confidentiality, as well as ensure services are delivered “competently”.
The government says with firms of less than 100 staff will have until July 1 next year to implement the code, while firms with more than 100 will have until January 1 next year.
Monadelphous could soon fill Kemerton void: Citi
Citi's William Park stays Buy rated with a $16.20 target price on Monadelphous as its share price falls sharply Thursday as Albemarle terminates Kemerton contracts.
Overall he says the market has taken a "glass half empty view."
But digging into the $200m hit to the engineering & construction order book, he notes that it includes deferred Train 4 works.
So it's more appropriate to see this as a $100m impact, excluding Train 4.
Monadelphous's estimate of $75-85mn revenue impact represents a 10 per cent hit to his FY25 E&C forecast of $782m.
Termination of maintenance works represents 1 per cent hit to his FY25 maintenance & industrial services revenue forecast of $1.425bn.
But the contracts would have covered works delivered to date alongside compensations for early termination to cover demobilisation and other costs.
"Given robust pipeline of construction opportunities, we think Monadelphous could move relatively quickly to pursue and secure to fill in the void with capacity that has been freed up at Kemerton," Mr Park says.
MND last down 4.5 per cent at $12.38 after hitting a 12-month low of $11.95.
DroneShield among heavy losers
DroneShield shares are down more than 14 per cent to $1.19 at 1.30pm AEST after its discounted institutional raise.
The company on Thursday returned from a trading halt after completing the $120m raise at $1.15 per share, which received "strong support" from existing and new domestic and international institutions and sophisticated investors.
The group, which provides AI-based platforms for protection against advanced threats such as drones and autonomous systems will use the funds for R&D into new counterdrone products and new generations of existing products in response to end user requirements. It will also boost DroneShield's purchasing power for potential strategic technology acquisitions.
The mid-cap tech business has a sales pipeline of $1.1bn with 110 qualified projects at different stages with high quality government customers and $28m of contracted sales orders currently being fulfilled.
Aussies flock to Meta's Facebook
Meta is on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world, says global boss Mark Zuckerberg, as the company reported June quarter revenues of $US39.1bn ($60bn).
That figure represented a 22 per cent jump year-on-year, with the platform also reporting its daily active users across its family of apps grew to 3.27 billion on average for June, up 7 per cent year-on-year. Australian users had played a major role in that jump, especially young adults using Facebook, according to the company's Australian boss William Eaton.
“Australia and New Zealand were some of the first countries outside of the US to launch Meta AI, and user engagements across our Family of Apps has never been stronger particularly with young adults on Facebook,” he said.
Meta recorded a total costs and expenses of $US24.22bn, a figure which had also grown 7 per cent. Its capital expenditure was $US8.47bn in total.
The company has 70,799 staff as of June 30, down 1 per cent year-on-year.
Deutsche Bank scraps RBA rate hike call
Deutsche Bank Australia chief economist Phil Odonaghoe scraps his previous call for the Reserve Bank to hike rates in August.
He says the next move will be a cut in 2Q25 after underlying inflation was "a lot softer than we expected" in the June quarter.
"There are serious questions to be asked about the usefulness of the monthly CPI indicator, especially the extent to which analysts and the market can rely on the monthly trimmed mean estimate – it accelerated in Q2 just as the official quarterly print decelerated – that's the lesson for forecasters including us," Odonaghoe says.
ASX 200 heading for another record close
Australia's stock market is on track for its second record high close in a row.
The ASX 200 index is up 0.4 per cent at 8126.7 after rising 1.8 per cent on Wednesday after lower than expected CPI data gave hope of interest rate cuts.
The index hit a new all-time high of 8148.7 in early trading.
It came as the S&P 500 rose 1.6 per cent as Nvidia surged 13 per cent and as S&P 500 futures rose 0.5 per cent in afterhours trading as Meta jumped 7 per cent.
The property, tech, energy, materials, utilities and consumer staples sectors lead with Goodman up 2.4 perr cent, Xero up 2 per cent, Woodside up 1.4 per cent, BHP up 1 per cent, Origin up 0.9 per cent and Woolworths up 1.3 per cent.
CBA is flat after hitting a record high for a second day running.
Monadelphous dives 5.9 per cent after flagging a $75m-$85m hit to FY25 revenue from the loss of contracts with Albemarle as it shutters its Kemerton project.
Maggie Beer lifts on settlement
Maggie Beer Holdings has paid $2m to settle a dispute with the founders of Hampers & Gifts Australia (HGA) over earnout payments relating to the ASX-listed gourmet food producer’s acquisition of the online hampers business in 2021.
In a statement to the ASX on Thursday, Maggie Beer said the parties had “amicably resolved their differences” over the $40m-plus acquisition, which included additional earnout payments of up to $10m. Maggie Beer had previously held that it was not required to pay an earnout payment to HGA founders Emily McWaters and David Morgan, claiming the business had failed to meet thresholds agreed to as part of the acquisition.
The company also confirmed on Thursday that its troubled Paris Creek Farms business would be treated as an asset held for sale in its full-year financial accounts, which are due to be released on August 26.
Following a strategic review of Paris Creek, Maggie Beer is considering "all options to optimise the value" of Paris Creek – a South Australian bio-dynamic and organic dairy producer – a little over a year after it scrapped earlier plans to sell. Maggie Beer shares were trading 7.1 per cent higher at 6c in Thursday morning trade.
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