Mortgage Choice considering expansion

Sunday, 07 March 2010 23:09

Lender Mortgage Choice’s chief executive, Michael Russell, yesterday said that his company is currently considering options to create new competitive products. Mr Russell suggested that the need to introduce loan products “really hit home” during the downturn, when numerous first-home buyers were anxious to know the state of their loans. “We need to be able to arrest that anxiety and let them know in a very short space of time that their loan application has been answered,” Mr Russell added.

In other business news for Monday 8 March 2010 Retailers are preparing to bolster market spending and implement targeted discounting programs in order to attract shoppers. Discount stores Target and Big W - which both indirectly benefited from the Federal Government’s stimulus payments - are focusing on maintaining sales growth throughout April and May. Target chief executive Launa Inman yesterday said that her company had identified key wanted items and offered good bulk buys.

Transport company Toll Holdings’ chief executive, Paul Little, yesterday said that his company would engage with analysts in a more transparent way. It is hoped that the announcement will avoid a repeat of this month’s market volatility, following disappointment over Toll’s half-year result. “We have accepted the market’s view on the level of disclosure that they believe they want from us and we will respond accordingly in the future,” Mr Little said.

Mining company BHP Billiton will sell coking coal to Japan’s JFE Steel Corporation at prices that are 55 percent higher than a previous annual pricing contract. During the April to June quarter of this year, JFE will pay US$200 per tonne for coking coal, which is US$20 higher than consensus forecasts. Macquarie Commodities analysts yesterday said that quarterly pricing was likely to be the “most probable outcome.”

Petroleum company Royal Dutch Shell has made a takeover offer for energy company Arrow Energy that is worth over $3.3 billion. Arrow is rumoured to have cancelled a shareholder road show in London as a result of the bid. Shell is understood to have made the bid as a result of Arrow’s proposed Fisherman’s Landing liquefied natural gas project, which is based near Gladstone in Queensland. Shell yesterday had a 30 percent stake in the project.

Accounting firm McGrathNicol’s Mike Hill - who is the trustee for two Trio Capital funds operated by Trio Capital - is rumoured to have held talks with both Trio and the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority over seeking compensation, according to section 23 of the Superannuation Industry Act. Federal Superannuation Minister Chris Bowen will make a decision, after seeking advice from APRA.

The latest research from investment bank Deutsche Bank yesterday said that earnings margins from the first-half reporting season showed that companies could report higher than expected profits. Deutsche strategist Tony Brennan and analyst Tim Baker both predict that the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for industrial shares on the benchmark ASX100 Index rose by 1 percent to an average of 15 percent of revenue during the period.

Queensland Rail’s chief executive, Lance Hockridge, yesterday suggested that the state-owned company could be floated as early as October this year. Mr Hockridge rejected recently comparisons between the QR float and that of Telstra, likening the difference to that of chalk and cheese. “You are talking about a big, big company with literally millions of small customers versus a company like ours with a handful, or two handfuls, of big customers,” Mr Hockridge said in a televised interview.

Department stores Myer and David Jones are likely to report early signs of improved trading at their first-half results meetings this week. Merrill Lynch economist John Rothfield said that department store turnover was up 7.2 percent.  Value analyst Roger Montgomery yesterday said that Myer’s share price was still “not cheap enough” to buy, despite falling from the float price of $4.10 per share to $3.39 a share.