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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed Summer series, brought to

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Speaker 1: you by Vanta, specialists in compliance led growth. I'm Michael

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Speaker 1: Thompson and good morning Sean Aylmer. Good morning Michael, and

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Speaker 1: Happy Boxing Day, Adam Lange.

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Speaker 2: Happy boxing and box site day to you. Michael, you

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Speaker 2: are still obsessed.

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Speaker 1: You two are both obsessed with Bauk Site after we

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Speaker 1: talked about it yesterday on Christmas Day and throughout the year.

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Speaker 1: I've never seen two people so obsessed with a mineral. Today,

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Speaker 1: in just five minutes, we are each going to put

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Speaker 1: forward a big story about today is the Australian corporate stories,

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Speaker 1: the stories from Australian businesses that have really kind of

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Speaker 1: captured our attention and held it throughout the year. We

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Speaker 1: are going to decide who wins at the end. Let's

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Speaker 1: jump into it. Sean, would you like to go first

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Speaker 1: this morning?

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Speaker 2: I would.

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Speaker 3: It's a bit like Christmas Day, you know, so the

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Speaker 3: first half of the day it gets better and better

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Speaker 3: and then you hit a wall and you go down, down, down.

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Speaker 3: Well that's kind of like the rise and rise of

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Speaker 3: Commonwealth Bank in the downfall of Woolies. A price of

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Speaker 3: common North Bank is up forty percent. This year, Australia's

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Speaker 3: biggest company has been re rated as an investment vehicle.

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Speaker 3: Rerated means people think differently about it. It's not just

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Speaker 3: about earnings, it's actually, ay, this is the better stock

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Speaker 3: than we ever realized. Let's push the share price up.

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Speaker 3: It's now among the most expensive banks in the world.

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Speaker 3: It's a leader in artificial intelligence in that sector. Its

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Speaker 3: numbers are incredible. The proportion of Ossie Bank customers who

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Speaker 3: say CommBank is their primary financial institution is more than

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Speaker 3: thirty five percent. The next best is sixteen percent, twenty

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Speaker 3: five percent of the home lending market, twenty seven percent

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Speaker 3: of the household deposit market, twenty six percent of the

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Speaker 3: business market, all with CommBank. Given there are four majors

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Speaker 3: plus a bunch of smaller operators, pretty impressive numbers. Incredible

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Speaker 3: year for Commonwealth Bank. The other end of the spectrum,

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Speaker 3: will Worths Wow. That's its ticker on the AX. Wow

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Speaker 3: Wow Wow will w Wow.

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Speaker 1: Do you get bonus points just for working that in

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Speaker 1: so seamlessly well played.

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Speaker 3: It started the year with a fight over Australia Day,

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Speaker 3: not a good beginning. Then the Australian competition and Consumer Commission,

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Speaker 3: the competition watchdog, started an inquiry into the supermarkets. There

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Speaker 3: was a one point seven billion dollar announcement of write

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Speaker 3: downs earlier in the year, a profit down grade later

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Speaker 3: in the year. In February, Chief executive Brad Banducci walked

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Speaker 3: out of a Four Corners interview quite spectacularly. His tenure

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Speaker 3: was pretty much over from that point, ended up with

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Speaker 3: a new CEO by the end of the year. There

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Speaker 3: were political calls to break up the supermarkets, and by

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Speaker 3: the end of the year the United Workers Union were

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Speaker 3: on strike, not allowing restocking. Share price of Woolies this

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Speaker 3: year down twenty percent. I would call it it an

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Speaker 3: it's horribulous, but I can never really say that phrase,

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Speaker 3: but I think that's what it.

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Speaker 2: Was for Woolies.

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Speaker 1: Tale of two stocks, Commonwealth Bank and Woolies feels like

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Speaker 1: a high risk phrase to mispronounces. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely

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Speaker 1: good story story, long story. But look, I'm piggybacking off

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Speaker 1: part of what you were talking about, which is Comonwealth Bank.

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about the banks as well, because Australia's banks

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Speaker 1: right have undergone change, leadership change this year, the likes

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Speaker 1: of which arguably we have not seen before. And it

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Speaker 1: matters because, as you've pointed out to us throughout the year, Shawn,

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Speaker 1: was that four of the seven biggest companies on the

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Speaker 1: AX or our banks this year, though has been a

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Speaker 1: year of renewal, I would argue for the banks, three

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Speaker 1: of four have now experienced change at the very top

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Speaker 1: new CEOs. Only Commonwealth Bank remains unchanged, with matt Common

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Speaker 1: still there. We've had NAB, Westpac, A and Z or

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Speaker 1: either already changed or in the process of changing chief

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Speaker 1: executives of those. A and Z's incoming boss, the Portuguese

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Speaker 1: banker Nuno Mattos, is probably the biggest wild card. He

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Speaker 1: doesn't have Australian banking experience and we do things a

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Speaker 1: little bit differently here. It's going to have his hands

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Speaker 1: full because another big news story today or this year

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Speaker 1: for the banks, A and Z's completing its major acquisition

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Speaker 1: of sun Corpse banking business for four point nine billion dollars.

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Speaker 1: That is a lot of change in just one year

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Speaker 1: for just one sector.

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Speaker 3: Pardon the pun.

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Speaker 1: Yes, I wish I'd thought of that as I was

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Speaker 1: saying it. Yes, that was very deliberate, and even the

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Speaker 1: chief economists are shuffling around as well changes at NAB

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Speaker 1: and Commonwealth Bank. It's almost exhausting.

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Speaker 3: What would the chief economists shuffle look like?

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Speaker 1: I imagine that's quite subdued, like it would be very

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Speaker 1: small steps, almost hands in pockets.

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Speaker 2: Is it a deck of economists?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, calculators, yeah, pocket protectors.

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Speaker 2: Spare pens just in case.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, no. I imagine that's what a chief economist

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Speaker 1: shuffle is, very very polite, I would imagine as well.

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Speaker 1: I would say it has been exhausting how much change

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Speaker 1: there has been at the banks. I for one, am

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Speaker 1: in need of arrest because I've been so directly affected

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Speaker 1: by this.

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Speaker 2: Adam, you're carrying that white Michael, okay me corporate governance

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Speaker 2: and it's scintillating as I say it. I know, but

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Speaker 2: oh dear, what a year. Some of these stories are

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Speaker 2: very difficult for individuals. Now, we appreciate these stories of

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Speaker 2: poor governance, which all have an impact on people, and

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Speaker 2: we hope each of them can help us to get

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Speaker 2: better in our workplaces. Governance is one of those.

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Speaker 3: Things associating how nice Adam.

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Speaker 1: Is some stop stop stop stop stop, Adam. I've just

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Speaker 1: got just mine a point of order. Corporately, what you

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Speaker 1: were talking about here. There is so much scandal within

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Speaker 1: all of these and yet you have just managed to

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Speaker 1: extract all of the fun, all of the excitement, and

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Speaker 1: all of the scandal from these scandalous stories and instead

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Speaker 1: make it exceedingly polite.

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Speaker 2: You would be a great chief economist, pocket protector.

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Speaker 3: Ready moving on, Adam, moving on?

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Speaker 2: All right, So governance is one of those things that's

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Speaker 2: sound boring until it all goes to pot and Michael,

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Speaker 2: perhaps that's to your point. This year we have seen

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Speaker 2: some spectacular failures and executive departures, and we hope to

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Speaker 2: all learn from them to create better functioning workplaces in media.

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Speaker 2: Nine Entertainment had to calling Intersection to lead in independent

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Speaker 2: review of work practices and complaints. Seven had to turn

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Speaker 2: its spotlight on itself to reveal bad behavior. Coles and

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Speaker 2: Woolworth faced ASEIC over misleading and deceptive discount pricing practices.

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Speaker 2: Star Entertainment had another year of fresh allegations and regulatory scrutiny.

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Speaker 2: A and Z was investigated for femis conduct. And they're

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Speaker 2: just some of them. And one more. The board of

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Speaker 2: Rex Airlines now faced ASEIC legal action about overly optimistic

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Speaker 2: financial forecasts. Now this has sometimes legal and very personal ramifications.

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Speaker 2: Corporate governance has been a massive story this year.

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Speaker 3: Now, Adam, Adam, I got to take exception here. You

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Speaker 3: have missed the two biggest corporate governance stories of the year.

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Speaker 3: Richard White at Weis tech Global Chris Ellison nothing.

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Speaker 2: To see me or Resources Ah, nothing to see here,

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Speaker 2: very isolated.

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Speaker 3: Super retail group.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe a few things need.

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Speaker 3: To try those in the mineral Resources. That's been the

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Speaker 3: worst performing stock all year. And Chris Ellison has been

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Speaker 3: caught up. Chris Elison's been caught up in allegations of

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Speaker 3: a tax scam. And of course Richard White, it was

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Speaker 3: all about his personal life that captured the headlines as well. Interestingly,

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Speaker 3: Wise tech Global share price didn't fall the Minute's ending

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Speaker 3: the year close to a record high. But yeah, plenty

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Speaker 3: of corporate moalthible. Oh yeah, okay, all right, I'll make

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Speaker 3: the decision here. I reckon the two of you win

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Speaker 3: for your joint story on corporate governance. I actually think,

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Speaker 3: to be honest, I should win because willis in common

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Speaker 3: off Bank of seventy shareholders. Fine, and and no, no, no,

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Speaker 3: I mean I'm not And.

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Speaker 2: What about spectacular those corporate governance.

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Speaker 3: Stories and you're the banks are the Big four, They're

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Speaker 3: kind of our leading companies. Let's look gold medals all around.

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Speaker 3: I say, oh, I love that three way time.

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Speaker 1: That is the in the spirit of boxing day. I

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Speaker 1: love that. Okay, thank you, Sean, Thanks Michael, thank you, Adam,

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Speaker 1: thank you Mike. Make sure you hit follow on the podcast.

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Speaker 1: This is the Fear and Greed Summer Series, brought to

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Speaker 1: and Greed. I'm Michael Thompson and this is the Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed Summer Series