Queensland business briefs: Your daily Sunshine State update
Business
The latest business news on Retail Food Group, AustChina Holdings, Cellnet, Intega, Cosol, Shine, Aeris Resources, Michael Hill, Central Petroleum, Bank of Qld, Anglo Coal, Superloop, Eumindi, Novonix, Change Financial, Sportshero, Data 3, Fiji Kava, Mastermyne, EML Payments
Closures impact RFG
Retail Food Group, which owns the Brumby’s Bakery, Gloria Jeans, Donut King and Michel’s Patisserie brands, has reported a net profit of $3.9 million, affected by discontinued operations.
It said its underlying net profit was $12 million, a 60 per cent increase on the previous corresponding period.
The company said it had made considerable progress in its turnaround.
AustChina suspends trade
AustChina Holdings, formerly known as Coal Bank, has suspended its shares from trading after a leap in price of 87 per cent this morning.
There was also a significant jump in trading volume before the suspension to more than 15 million shares.
The company shares consistently trade below 1 cent. It has a market capitalisation of $13 million.
Cellnet to rethink dividend
Technology distributor Cellnet has produced a half-year profit of $2.4 million, a dramatic 1092 per cent increase on the corresponding period of 2019.
The result did not help its share price which fell 25 per cent this morning.
The company said it was now considering reinstating a dividend, subject to its second half performance.
Chief executive Dave Clark said debt term loans had been repaid and operating costs were down by $1 million.
He said the company would be accelerating its growth strategies across gaming, mobile accessories and online distrubution.
Intega profit
Engineering services company Intega has reported a $2 million profit for the first half.
The company was created from a demerger with Cardno in 2019.
Its underlying EBITDA was $24.7 million, an increase of 11.7 per cent.
It declared a dividend of 1 cent a share.
COSOL optimistic
COSOL has delivered a 35 per cent increase in first-half net profit of $1.85 million.
Revenue jumped 45 per cent and the company declared a fully franked dividend of .5 cents a share.
COSOL said it was optimistic that the business would perform strongly in the second half. It said there was a strong pipeline in place to win new and expanded client work.
Law firm boosts earnings
Shine Justice has increased its first-half profits by 14 per cent to $10.05 million.
Its underlying result was in line with its guidance and it declared an unfranked dividend of 2 cents a share.
The law firm said there was a pipeline of organic and acquisitive opportunities emerging in core markets.
Its guidance was that it expected a continuation of earnings growth in 2021 in the order of a high single-digit percentage increase, subject to unforeseen pandemic impacts.
Sliding door year for Aeris
Copper-gold producer Aeris Resources has reported an almost doubling of revenue for the first half while net profit jumped 260 per cent to $46 million.
The result includes the Cracow mine, which it bought last year.
Executive chairman Andre Labuschagne said 2020 was a “sliding door” year for Aeris because of weather conditions and the pandemic.
MHJ booming despite closures
Michael Hill International has reported an 82 per cent increase in half-year net profit of $39 million.
However, the company has kept its dividend at 1.5 cents a share, the same as last year, despite the big increase in earnings.
It said the performance of its Australian operation was a credit to the division because it lost 2567 trading days during the pandemic.
Digital sales doubled to $18.5 million and same-store sales were up 6.3 per cent.
Chief executive Daniel Bracken said the company entered the current half with clear strategic initiatives and he was encouraged by results so far with same store sales up 11 per cent for the first eight weeks.
Tuesday
Profit for Central
Central Petroleum has reported a net profit of $2.5 million for the December half year.
The result was up 15 per cent on the previous half because of lower exploration activity, corporate cost savings and lower interest and depreciation costs.
EBITDA was $12.9 million, an increase of 51 per cent on the June 30 half year.
BoQ gets its cash
Bank of Queensland shares jumped as much as 10 per cent today after the resumed trading following its $1.3 billion takeover announcement of ME Bank.
The bank also said it had raised $323 million in its institutional offer at a price of $7.35 a share.
The raising is part of its $1.3 billion strategy to buy ME Bank.
The takeup rate of the offer was 98 per cent.
Overall, $673 million was raised in the institutional component. Another $350 million was raised in a placement.
BoQ managing director George Frazis said the bank was pleased with the strong support and that investors recognised the strategic and financial proposition.
The retail component of the offer is expected to raise $680 million. It will open on March 1 and will be under the same terms as the insitutional offer.
BoQ shares jumped more than 3 per cent this morning to $8.70.
Monday
Gas woes for Anglo
Anglo coal has revealed that it conducted a controlled withdrawal of workers from its Moranbah North mine on February 20 after elevated levels “of some gases in the goaf” which is an area behind the longwall that caves in behind the face post-mining.
The company said this would indicate a coal heating issue and an overpressure event.
“We have internal and external experts assessing various information sources in order to more accurately determine the cause of the event,” a company spokesman said.
“At the time of the incident, we had been mining through some particularly challenging geology and every precaution was being taken.
“The conclusions from the expert review of the incident will inform a comprehensive risk assessment prior to re-entry, which will require regulatory approval.
There was no evidence of any explosion and the methane levels on the longwall were within regulatory levels.
Contract win
Superloop has won a $25 million multi-year contract for NBN aggregation services for MNF Group’s Symbio.
The deal is Superloop’s biggest contract to date.
Superloop chief executive Paul Tyler said the company’s network had been designed for such a purpose.
Eumundi hit by resreictions
Hotel and property company Eumundi Group has posted a net profit of almost $1 million profit for the December half year.
The result was dragged down by impacts from the pandemic and fair value valuations but was still better than the $681,000 profit for the previous corresponding period.
Eumindi reported improved performances from the Ashmore and Aspley taverns whereas investment property revenues fell 8 per cent.
No dividend was declared.
Novonix spikes … again
Novonix shares jumped 16 per cent this morning after the company announced plans to enter the battery manufacturing business in north America.
The company, which is currently a battery materials and testing company, has struck a deal with Canada’s Emera to develop and manufacture energy storage systems.
Emera is involved in microgrid power and batteries through its BlockEnergy subsidiary and has been working with Novonix to develop a battery pack to support microgrids.
Movonix chief executive Chris Burns said the project would bring significant market opportunities.
An exploration forum in Brisbane today heard Queensland’s resources industry has grown exponentially over the past decade, and by an incredible 77 per cent in the past three years.
Exploration boost
Queensland Exploration Council chair Kim Wainwright said exploration expenditure in Queensland has been robust over most of the past 10 years, apart from a drop in 2015-17, but had been on a steep upwards trajectory since 2018.
“For the past decade, the QEC’s annual Scorecard publication has shown a highly positive explorer sentiment towards resource prospectivity, which is very good news for our industry and a barometer for how well the resources sector is travelling,” she said.
Wainwright told a gathering of more than 130 explorers, producers, investors, researchers and regulators that Queensland had enormous resources prospects and a skilled workforce focussed on “that next big discovery”.
“We are fortunate Queensland’s North West Minerals Province is one of the world’s richest mineral producing areas containing copper, lead and zinc as well as major silver and phosphate deposits and strong rare earth potential,” she said.
Wild ride for Change
Shares in fin tech company Change Financial have gone on a wild ride in the past two days.
Its shares jumped more than 50 per cent yesterday as more than 70 million of its shares traded and the firm has no idea why.
Change was queried by the ASX on the volume and increase that saw the stock jump from 11 cents to 18 cents.
It told the ASX it was not aware of any information that would have caused the jump but noted that it had occurred before in September 2020 when it announced an acquisition which elevated it to a “global fin tech player.”
The shares fell 20 per cent this morning.
Sportshero jumps
Sportshero shares plunged 12 per cent this morning as huge volume in trading took place.
Almost 100 million shares in the company were traded on Wednesday and a further 5 million moved this morning.
It came as the company announced its Olahbola football app in the Indonesian market had more than 3 million unique users and was growing at a compound rate of 31 per cent a month.
Data 3 improves
Brisbane tech company Data 3 has produced a $9.4 million profit for the half year, an 8 per cent improvement on last year.
Chief executive Laurance Baynham said about 62 per cent of the copmpany’s revenue was recurring and from contracts with government and large corporations.
A dividend of 5.5 cents a share was declared.
Operating expenses fell 18 per cent mainly due to the lack of travel.
Fiji Kava has produced a $1.5 million loss for the six months to December.
The result was based on record revenue of almost $500,000, an increase of 111 per cent.
Chief executive Nicholas Simms said key milestones had been achieved in the period including entry into China.
Wednesday
Mastermyne slumps
Mastermyne has posted a $2 million profit on $111 million in revenue for the half year.
Managing director Tony Caruso said the lower coal price during the six months was major factor in falling revenue.
At the troubled Crinum mine, Caruso said a decision was expected later this year on whether production would recommence.
“This project will be a significant milestone for the business and will be the realisation of a long-term strategy to move into contract mining operations and we look forward to a successful outcome,” he said.
Mastermyne will pay a 75 cents a share dividend.
He said the company’s order book was at $595 million of which $117 million would be delivered in the second half.
Payments boom
Payments technology company EML Payments has reported record revenues of $95 million for the December half, an increase of 61 per cent.
It has reinstated its full year guidance of its EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) to between $50 million and $54 million.
Its group EBITDA for the half was $28 million.
It said its gross debit volume grew 54 per cent in the half year to $4.87 billion.
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