The ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) was down again this morning but it’s currently up by around 0.3%.
Protests in the US continue to dominate the headlines and it seems some investors don’t know what to make of it. But the investment news continues in Australia on the ASX:
ANZ (ASX: ANZ) announces an asset sale
ANZ has announced the sale of its asset finance business in New Zealand, called UDC Finance, for NZ$762 million to Shinsei Bank.
UDC Finance’s sale will provide around AU$439 million of CET1 capital, which equates to around 10 basis points. The sale will also release more than NZ$2 billion of funding provided by ANZ New Zealand which will strengthen its balance sheet position.
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Brickworks (ASX: BKW) trading update
Management said that sales revenue for the four months to May 2020 in Australia was down 10% compared to the prior corresponding period. Plant closures have helped cashflow, but impacted earnings. But Brickworks did generate a profit for this period. It has received development approval for the new $125 million brick plant at Horsley Park in NSW.
In North America, the building products business there estimated like for like sales volume was down more than 30% in April and May due to lockdowns in many states. In the financial year to date this division has made a profit, but it has seen negative earnings in recent months due to COVID-19.
Development activity has continued at Oakdale in Sydney for the property trust.
The company has delayed expenditure, closed a US plant and slowed production to manage stock levels.
Arena REIT (ASX: ARF) capital raising
Arena REIT is going to do a fully underwritten $50 million capital raising at an issue price of $2.28 per share unit. After that it will do a non-underwritten security purchase plan (SPP) to raise up to $10 million. The issue price is a 5% discount to the last closing price of $2.40.
The proceeds will be used to invest in further property investments. After the raising it will reduce Arena REIT’s gearing to 17.6%, using the 31 December 2019 numbers.
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