Ardent Leisure shares have fallen 20 per cent since the start of March and are trading at a 7 year low of $1.31. There has not been any news out from the company since it released half-year earnings on 22 February.
Since then it has been downgraded to a 'hold' by Baillieu and a block of 15.8 million shares traded on 6 March. On 5 March the Cayman Islands-registered Sun Hung Kai Global Opportunity Fund revealed it had increased its stake to 6.2 per cent.
Courtesy post that Gmail is down. You may need to pick up the phone rather than relying on email.
Sigma Health has dropped further, now down 16 per cent from yesterday's close. The stock dropped from 58 cents to 51.2 cents at 12.40pm, just minutes after Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) released a scathing letter to the market confirming its intentions to pursue a merger are "unable to be taken forward" and it will sell its 13 per cent stake in Sigma. Trading volumes are very heavy, with trades going through in blocks of tens of thousands of shares.
API argues to takeover would have led to $60 million in synergies within three years.
"In contrast, the publicly available information on the restructure of Sigma's standalone business remains highly uncertain and unclear, while the business itself will be significantly downsized, following the decision by Sigma's major customer (Chemist Warehouse) to take its business elsewhere," API's letter states.
"The Sigma board has chosen a path to restructure its significantly downsized business, rather than pursue a merger to create a future that benefits consumers, pharmacists and both sets of shareholders. API has closed its data room and is reviewing its shareholding in Sigma which it acquired in the latter part of 2018."
Kathmandu warns its website was hacked for over a month with a third party gaining access between 8 January 2019 and 12 February 2019. "During this period, the third party may have captured customer personal information and payment details entered at check-out," the company has just told the stock market. Shares closed flat yesterday but are down 0.8 per cent today to $2.34.
"Kathmandu is notifying potentially affected customers directly...Kathmandu is in the process of notifying the relevant privacy and law enforcement agencies."
Chief executive says an independent forensic investigation in ongoing and it apologises to any customers affected by the data security breach.
Broker Morgans downgraded its recommendation on electricity and gas distributor AusNet Services shares to "hold" from "add" after its share price appreciated, limiting the potential of future returns. Shares are up 17 per cent from a low point of $1.51 in December to $1.78 today.
"We think the share price is being driven by falling government bond rates, and a switch from [Spark] to [AusNet] given [Spark's] tax issues," wrote analyst Nathan Lead.
The broker has a $1.73 price target on AusNet shares, and five-year return of around 6 per cent a year including distributions. "We think regulatory outperformance will become tougher to achieve," Mr Lead said, noting regulatory decisions regarding rate of return guidelines and their impact on medium-term cashflow. He forecasts a distribution of 9.7¢ a share in 2019-20, flat versus 2018-19.
Newcrest Gold has been yo-yoing this week. It closed at $24.50 on Friday. On Monday it went up 3.8 per cent to $25.43 after announcing a $1.1 billion purchase in Canada, then on Tuesday dropped 3.8 per cent. Today it is back up 2.9 per cent to $25.17 after telling the market late yesterday afternoon it has established a joint venture with Greatland Gold, which owns the neighbouring tenement near Telfer in Western Australia. Newcrest will spend a minimum of $US5 million with a potential of spending up to $US70 million.
Sigma Healthcare has rejected an indicative takeover offer from rival Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) saying the offer is not in the best interest of shareholders, Colin Kruger reports. Sigma shares are down 4.5 per cent to 58.5 cents this morning. The company reports its full year results next Thursday, 21 March.
In a release to the ASX on Wednesday, Sigma reported that API has reaffirmed its indicative offer last week and waived a condition relating to cost synergies after due diligence. Sigma said its board, having completed a detailed assessment of API's offer and concluded that the company's future as a stand-alone business, offers better opportunities for investors.
"The current API proposal does not reflect the long-term prospects and value inherent in Sigma having regard to the reset cost base of the business and our own growth agenda," said Sigma chairman Brian Jamieson.
The S&P/ASX 200 is still down at 6151 points compared to an opening of 6174. Currently 127 stocks are in the red and 69 are in green.
Portfolio manager at Tribeca Investment Partners, Jun Bei Liu, says there is not much news around today to drive sentiment.
"It's more about investors taking risk of the table rather than panic selling," she says.
Wall Street was flat, but she says this can be attributed to Boeing, which fell 6 per cent.
"Boeing is a very big part of the index. So that dragged the index lower, but tech names performed well."
Indeed, Boeing took 166 points off the Dow Jones, which ended the session 96 points lower, down by 0.4 per cent. Boeing has fallen from $US422.54 on Friday to $375.41 after a second crash involving its 737 MAX planes and subsequent groundings by aviation authorities.
Digital-only bank ING has recorded a surge in customer numbers following the banking royal commission, as 400,000 new customers signed on to the local subsidiary of the Dutch banking giant. ING traditionally has been used as an additional bank by customers of the majors seeking a higher interest rate on savings accounts, but more customers now consider it their main financial institution.
The bank says it has 645,000 customers now calling ING their main bank, up 57 per cent on a year earlier, and it is targeting 1 million primary bank customers by the end of the year. In 2013, that number was 100,000.
With listed regional banks Bank of Queensland and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank struggling to grow earnings, ING — the fifth largest bank in Australia in both mortgages and retail savings — reported a 15 per cent increase in statutory net profit to $401 million for the 2018 calendar year.
More than 500,000 new "Orange Everyday" payment accounts were opened over the year — the account pays a very competitive interest rate of up to 2.8 per cent per annum — helping to boost deposits to $43.4 billion, up 9 per cent. This represents 4 per cent of the market and ING is targeting 5 per cent.
Read the full story from James Eyers at the Financial Review.
The S&P/ASX 200 is still lower, down nearly 24 points to 6151 after hitting a low point of 6140. A 2.8 million block of Nufarm shares has just gone through for $5.25 per share. Nufarm closed at $5.34 yesterday and dropped 2.4 per cent to $5.21 on opening. It has not released any news recently.
Sigma Healthcare is down 5.7 per cent to 57 cents after rejecting the API takeover offer.
Outside the top 200, AJ Lucas Group is down 8.3 per cent today and Kogan.com is down 3.6 per cent to an eight-week low of $3.50.