ASX 200 rises, Australia GDP shows a recession is looming

The ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is currently up almost 1% as investors reacted to the news of Australia’s Q1 GDP numbers according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Australian to enter a recession?

GDP declined by 0.3% according to the ABS. Don’t forget that it only takes two quarters of GDP declines for the country to officially be in a recession.

Plenty of financial shares have risen in reaction to this news. The NAB (ASX: NAB) share price is up 3.25%, the CBA (ASX: CBA) share price is up 2.4%, the Westpac (ASX: WBC) share price is up almost 3% and the ANZ (ASX: ANZ) share price is up 3.75%.

We’ve also seen the BOQ (ASX: BOQ) share price go up almost 3% and the Bendigo Bank (ASX: BEN) share price rise 4.3%.

Construction shares have also reacted positively to the news. The Brickworks (ASX: BKW) share price is up 0.5% and the Boral (ASX: BLD) share price is up 2.7%.

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Takeover offer for renewable energy business

UAC Energy has acquired a 12.82% interest in Infigen (ASX: IFN).

UAC has declared that it intends to make an all cash takeover bid of $0.80 per Infigen share. This is a 35.6% premium to the Infigen closing price on 2 June 2020. It’s also a 43.4% premium to the 1-month average share price over the past month.

UAC said it’s a good offering considering Infigen’s patchy shareholder returns, the delay in projects and the fall in electricity prices. However, it will require FIRB approval to go ahead as well as other conditions.

Debt announcement for Aurizon (ASX: AZJ)

Railway infrastructure business Aurizon has announced that it has successfully refinanced its bank facilities with the total commitments increasing to $1.3 billion, an increase of $420 million. The new facilities mature between 2023 and 2025.

This will mean the company has more than $1.1 billion of available liquidity. The company also reaffirmed its underlying EBIT guidance of between $880 million to $930 million for FY20.

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