| Al | Aluminium smelters in China, the world’s top producer and consumer of the metal, have agreed on higher ratios of metal prices next year to value purchases of the raw material alumina, spurred by worries of tighter supply at home. Deals for 2013 alumina imports were set at about 16.1-16.3% of London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminium prices , free on board, higher than the 15.2-15.5% paid in 2012, traders and sources at smelters said. | Reuters |
| AWC | Aluminium smelters in China, the world’s top producer and consumer of the metal, have agreed on higher ratios of metal prices next year to value purchases of the raw material alumina, spurred by worries of tighter supply at home. Deals for 2013 alumina imports were set at about 16.1-16.3% of London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminium prices , free on board, higher than the 15.2-15.5% paid in 2012, traders and sources at smelters said. | Reuters |
| IAG | IAG has exited the UK, selling the business for $130m, they will take a $240m net loss on the sale. In the first half the UK lost $5m, IAG’s capital position will have a “modest positive impact”. This closes IAG’s misadventures in the UK and lowers the risk profile of the stock. | Company report |
| Japan | Japan’s tankan sentiment gauge worsens in Q4 | Market Watch |
| China | China GDP growth around 8%, CPI up 3% | Market Watch |
| China | HSBC Flash China PMI 50.9 (prior 50.5, Expected was 50.8) | Market Watch |
| TAP | Tap is focused on commercialising its portfolio of exploration and development assets. These assets include the significant Zola gas discovery in WA-49-R / WA-290-P and the Tallaganda gas discovery in WA-351-P in the offshore Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. Given the significant Zola gas discovery will likely be a long lead time LNG development, Tap is continuing to investigate options to monetise its interest in that asset. The Tallaganda discovery in WA-351-P may be a complementary asset for a gas buyer. | Company report |
| AGO | Atlas Iron is pleased to announce that it has signed three new term offtake contracts covering ~2.2 million tonnes of iron ore a year. The three contracts, which have durations of 1 to 3 years, were signed with two Chinese steel mills and a major international trading house. Atlas is also pleased to announce that it has recently shipped its first cargo outside of China via a spot sale to a major Asian steel mill with a view to growing the relationship with the purchaser. | Company report |
| WDR | Has signed a sale and purchase agreement to earn 70% interest in Tianda EL 25688 through a spend of $850K and acquires the remaining 30% | Company report |
| WHC | The Australian Rail Track Corporation has revised the estimated date for re-opening the line. The track is now scheduled to open on 20 December, 2012 – five days earlier than previously advised. | Company report |
| LEI | LEI has signed an MoU with MAH in relation to the potential acquisition of most of MAH’s construction projects. LEI intends to acquire the construction projects for ~$16.3m, subject to adjustments. LEI also noted it would support MAH’s 2 for 3 equity entitlement offer to raise ~$80.7m. MAH will use the proceeds to strengthen the balance sheet following recent write-downs in its construction business and fund future mining growth. LEI currently hold 19% of MAH. The acquisition relates to specific MAH construction projects (15) with expected work outstanding of ~$624m, and includes selected equipment and people associated with those projects. The bulk of the projects will transition to LEI’s John Holland business, adding to volume and scale, and expanding its presence in the Northern Territory. MAH will retain a small number of construction projects which are scheduled to be completed in the coming months. The proposed transaction is subject to LEI completing confirmatory due diligence of MAH’s construction projects, tender projects and fixed assets. It is also subject to MAH shareholder approval and expected to be completed by the end of Dec 2012. | Shaw |
| GGG | The Company continuously operated a flotation pilot plant at the laboratory of SGS‐Oretest in Perth, WA. The pilot plant produced approximately 300 kg of rare earth mineral concentrate from 4 tonnes of Kvanefjeld ore. Successfully completing this continuous piloting campaign represents the final phase of process de-risking for the concentrator circuit in the Kvanefjeld flow-sheet. The results obtained during the operation of the pilot plant exceeded the Company’s expectations. Highlights of the campaign include: Achieving a Concentrate grade of 15% REO, significantly exceeding both feasibility design and results achieved in bench‐scale laboratory test-work; Lower levels of impurities were present in the Concentrate in comparison to the results achieved in bench‐scale laboratory test‐work | Company report |
| DML | Diamond drilling at the Zeta NE Deposit, located approximately seven kilometres from the Zeta Open Pit mine, has intersected copper mineralisation at a vertical depth of 460 metres. The previous deepest hole intersected copper-silver mineralisation at a depth of 230 metres. | Company report |
| CPL | Coalspur and CN enter binding legal agreement outlining key terms for a definitive commercial agreement for our coal supply chain partnership. Terms agreed include rates, term and escalation. Final terms agreed with CN produce logistics savings at full capacity (12.0 Mtpa) compared with the Vista Feasibility Study. Total logistics costs, which comprise approximately 50% of Vista’s estimated FOB cash cost, are now certain. Vista’s total FOB cash costs for the first 10 years of production are under C$60 per tonne, ensuring Coalspur is well placed to weather the cycles in thermal coal markets | Company report |
| MAH | Macmahon successfully completes $42 million Institutional Entitlement Offer Bookbuild | Company report |
| ALZ | Australand has rejected an offer from GPT to buy its investment-property portfolio and commercial-and-industrial business as too low. Australand said that the non-binding proposal only offered a premium of 140 million Australian dollars (US$147 million) to the book value of its assets as of June 30. “The board of Australand, together with its advisers, has carefully considered the proposal and has determined [it] does not provide a compelling value proposition and is not in the best interests of Australand’s security holders,” the company said. The GPT Group announced the bid Monday, sending Australand’s shares 6.3% higher by the close of trading. It said it had sought talks with Australand’s board about buying all of its assets and operations–except for its residential assets and businesses–for an undisclosed amount in cash. | Company report |
| DLS | Drillsearch Energy is pleased to announce the completion of the final component of its fully underwritten 1 for 10 accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer to raise a total of $50 million at $1.30 per new Drillsearch share (New Share) offered | Company report |
| QAN | The ACCC said that it will approve plans by flag carrier Qantas Airways to set up four Asian joint ventures through its low-cost Jetstar unit. The ventures propose coordinating on passenger and cargo services on Asian routes, and are being established by Qantas to bypass international regulations that prevent it from wholly or majority owning airlines outside Australia. Qantas plans joint ventures with a Singapore citizen, Vietnam Airlines, Japan Airlines and in Hong Kong with China Eastern Airlines Corp. The four joint ventures are unlikely to be close competitors with each other and where there is any overlap there are already multiple competitors, the regulator said in a draft decision. | Company report |
| CTX | Caltex Australia expects a return to profitability thanks to stronger sales of its petrol products. The company said on Friday it expects its operating profit in calendar 2012 to be in the range of $145 million to $165 million, on a replacement cost basis. Replacement cost basis excludes the effect of changes in the world oil price, and reflects the company’s underlying performance. The forecast includes the costs of its future closure of its refinery at Kurnell in Sydney. Caltex made a loss of $852 million in 2011, on a replacement cost basis. The company said the improvement was due to growth in its marketing operations, and higher production from its facilities at Lytton in Brisbane and Kurnell in Sydney. | Company report |
| ALQ | ALQ has announced the purchase of an 80% shareholding of the operations of the Corplab laboratory group in South America for an EV of ~$38m. No material changes to our FY13 EPS estimates. We have increased our FY14 EPS forecast by 1.2% and our price target increases from $9.00 to $9.75. Our target price is derived from a composite valuation of Sum of The Parts (SOTP), PE Relative and DCF methodologies. Our DCF valuation increases assuming increased benefits as Corplab grows over time. ALQ historically trades on a 20% forward PE premium to the S&P/ASX 200 (XJO) index. Given recent uncertainty surrounding capex spend by the major miners our target price of $9.75 is derived by applying a conservative 10% relative PE premium to the XJO. Our SOTP valuation assumes a higher multiple for ALQ as it closes the gap on international peers. Corplab’s current shareholders will retain 20% of the company whilst they remain in executive positions with the company. ALQ has a five year Put and Call option over the outstanding shares. Established in 1995, Corplab operates eight environmental laboratories and one food laboratory in South America. Corplab has 420 staff with operations in Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador and has shown strong revenue growth over recent years due to the strong development of many of the South American economies. Combined with ALQ’s existing environmental operations in Peru, Chile and Mexico, the entity will be the largest environmental analytical laboratory group in Latin America with revenues in excess of $30m. The acquisition will be slightly EPS accretive in the first year of ownership. However, Life Sciences margins (FY12: 21.7%) are historically weaker than in the core Minerals division (FY12: 36.3%). | Company report |
| US | US initial jobless claims fell for a fourth straight week, dropping 29,000 to a seasonally adjusted 343,000 to a near four-year low. | Bloomberg |
| US | weaker November retail sales number (+0.3%, vs consensus: +0.5%). | Bloomberg |
| EU | The Eurogroup approved its EUR49.1bn of aid payments to Greece, as expected. | Citi |
| EU | Spanish Treasury has issued EUR97.057bn of medium-and long-term bonds in 2012, which is 113% of its original target. The average yield on the issuance was 3.42% as of November 30, almost 48bp below that of December last year. | Citi |
| UK | S&P said it had cut the UK’s rating outlook to negative. S&P said there is a 33% chance that it will cut the UK’s rating if the country’s fiscal and economic performances weaken beyond current expectations | Citi |
| Aust | Central Bank of Russia has raised its AUD reserves to 1.5%. | Citi |
| EU | EU ministers will establish a single bank supervisor by March 2014. Banks with assets of €30bn, or larger than one-fifth of their country’s economic output, would be supervised by the ECB rather than their national supervisors | Citi |
| PMV | Mark McInnes, chief executive of Premier Investments, said the company was preparing for a number of new retail acquisitions through a sustained personnel hiring policy. | The Australian |
| BHP | Global miner BHP Billiton and oil producer ExxonMobil announced they will spend $992 million constructing a “conditioning plant” next to their Longford gas facility in Victoria, which will filter excess carbon dioxide generated by three new gas operations in the Bass Strait | SMH |
| IOH | Iron Ore Holdings is pleased to announce that it has completed a Concept Study into the feasibility of its 100% owned Maitland River Project. Maitland River is a magnetite project located 10km from the coast in the Pilbara region of WA. The Project area is within 5km of the North West Coastal Highway and the Bunbury to Dampier natural gas pipeline. | Company report |
| US | The U.S. Senate blocked a bill to extend an unlimited guarantee on nearly $1.5 trillion in bank deposits, effectively ending a crisis-era program that was popular with smaller banks. | WSJ |
| Oil | the British government lifted its 19-month-old moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, which it imposed after exploratory shale-gas drilling in Lancashire prompted two minor tremors last year. | WSJ |
| SCP | SCP reports that specialty tenant leasing activity has progressed well across the portfolio during the 2 month period since issue of the PDS. SCP has successfully entered into new lease agreements, resulting in a net increase in occupied space of over 1,600sqm and an increase in the portfolio’s specialty occupancy of approximately 2%. This results in an increase in occupancy rates across the portfolio from 95% to 95.5% | Company report |
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