Hi, I am Rose, and you are watching Kalkine TV live from Sydney. This is The Stocks in Action
show. In today’s Stocks in Action show, we will take a look at the latest updates from
Australian multinational contractor CIMIC Group, contract service and infrastructure
giant NRW Holdings and financial services firm Macquarie Group. We will also look at Global
resources company BHP Group and mineral explorer and project generator Strategic Energy Resources.
Lastly, we will take a quick glance at developments across ASX200. So, stay tuned.
Firstly, shares of Australian multinational contractor CIMIC Group were down on Wednesday
after the company declared that its companies Leighton Asia, UGL and Broad Construction,
have further extended their presence in Hong Kong and Australia respectively. A contract is awarded
to Leighton Asia totalling approximately $145 million in revenue. It will deliver building work,
architectural finishes, fitout and building services work for a data centre in Hong
Kong. CIMIC Group’s diversified portfolio provides essential infrastructure across
a range of sectors. These projects display the depth of our experience – be it as Australia’s
only manufacturer of heavy locomotives, as a specialist contractor completing a data centre
to strict compliance standards or delivering building projects in Western Australia for
more than 30 years. The projects are expected to be completed in 2022. Moving on to NRW Holdings
which is a contract service and infrastructure giant. Its shares were trading down on Wednesday
as the company shared today that its wholly owned subsidiary Primero Group has been awarded
a material contract. The contract is awarded for the Engineering, Procurement and Construction of
the Mt Holland Concentrator project for Covalent Lithium. Primero has been awarded the EPC contract
that will process ‘run of mine’ ore at a rate of circa 2 million Tonnes Per Annum and produce
an output of around 400,000 Tonnes Per Annum of spodumene concentrate to feed the Company’s
integrated Lithium Hydroxide conversion refinery situated at Kwinana. The Mt Holland project has
been worked on in various development phases over the past 18 months between the Covalent
and Primero teams. The full execution will start immediately with site works planned to start in
October. Covalent Lithium is a joint venture between Wesfarmers and SQM.
Next news covers Macquarie Group which is a financial services firm. Shares of the company
were trading up on Wednesday after it shared an update on its first half of financial year 2022.
The company expects it a bit weaker in comparison to second half of financial year
2021. Macquarie implied that COVID-19 and unstable market conditions could act as key influencers to
its short-term outlook. In addition, its asset management business has already seen effects,
due to the timing of performance fees and higher expenses, alongside lower volumes in its financing
arm. The company feels that in first half, favourable market conditions have facilitated
stronger than expected commodities and global market business results. It has even reported
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Basel III common equity Tier 1 capital ratio
at 12 per cent, which moved up from 11.4 per cent reported on 31 March. Macquarie is realigning
each division at its Corporate and Asset Finance business and shifting them to other businesses.
It has already been decided that the CAF Principal Finance business will join
Macquarie Capital to aggregate its principal investing activities. In
addition, Macquarie will shift the CAF transportation finance will join Macquarie
Asset Management, and CAF Asset Finance will go under Commodities and Global Markets business.
And now, it’s time for a short break but stay tuned as I’ll be back with
more trending updates for the Australian market.
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Welcome back. This is Rose, your host live from Kalkine Studio. And
you are watching ‘The Stocks in Action show’.
Next news covers BHP Group, a global resources company. Shares of the company were trading down
on Wednesday as they revealed their contributions to the Australian economy. The Company has
mentioned that it has invested AU$34.1 billion in the Australian economy in financial year 2021.
This includes Payment to suppliers of AU$11.1 billion, Dividends and interests to shareholders,
investors and lenders of AU$6 billion, and social investments of AU$100 million. Payment
to employees and contractors were AU$4.5 billion and BHP has also contributed
a sum of total AU$12.4 billion to the Australian Government. This includes Federal income taxes,
Petroleum Resource Rent Tax and taxes levied on production of AU$8.4 billion, Australian adjusted
effective tax rate was about 32.9 per cent and once royalties are included of 41.4 per cent.
BHP also gave the state royalties that included AU$3 billion to Western Australia, AU$402 million
to Queensland, South Australia received AU$102 million, New South Whales got AU$83 million,
and other payments to the state and federal government were at AU$444 million. BHP
has a record of contributing a total of AU$80.3 billion to the Australian economy
over the past ten years. BHP Group is engaged in iron ore mining and oil. It also produces
other metals such as Copper, and Iron Ore. BHP is a dual-listed company on the ASX with two
parent companies, namely, BHP Billion Limited and BHP Billion PLC. The Company operated with over
60.000 employees and contractors across Australia and America.
Last news to be discussed in this session covers Strategic Energy Resources. Shares of
mineral explorer and project generator Strategic Energy Resources are trading up on Wednesday
after the company shared today that it has received firm commitments to raise AU$1,320,000
by way of a Share Placement of 30,000,000 fully paid ordinary shares 4.4cents per share. The
Placement was oversubscribed. In response to strong demand,
scale backs were applied to all parties. The Company is excited to welcome approximately 50 new
and existing investors that supported the raise. The 30,000,000 Shares will be issued
within the Company’s existing 15 per cent placement capacity. The Directors have
supported the Placement and will subscribe for 2.375 million Shares totalling AU$104,500. The
funds raised from this Placement will be used to drill the Achilles 1 project at South Cobar,
the Lorraine North project at Isa North as well as working capital. The imminent copper-gold
drilling at East Tennant and Canobie projects scheduled for this year is already fully funded.
Before wrapping up, let us quickly glimpse through developments across
equity and commodity markets. Let us first start with ASX 200 performance. The
S&P/ASX200 is lower today, dropping 0.44%. ST Barbara is down 4.17 per cent while
Eagers Automotive was down 4.04 per cent. 10 of 11 sectors are lower
today. A Real Estate Investment Trust was the worst performing sector today in the morning.
Alright then, that is all for now. Stay tuned with Kalkine TV for more live market updates.
We will be back with more news on markets, the economy and diverse themes and sector.