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Speaker 1: This is what the flux.

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Speaker 2: I'm Brettan, I'm justin and it's last Friday, the twentieth

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Speaker 2: of December, doyboy.

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Speaker 1: Each year, Treasury releases a juicy report that highlights how

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Speaker 1: many Aussies are taking advantage of tax benefits.

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Speaker 2: Juicy.

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Speaker 1: Get this, Nearly half of all Australian landlords have negatively

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Speaker 1: geared their properties. All in all, the negative gearing benefit

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Speaker 1: will cost the government six billion dollars in lost tax.

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Speaker 2: Flux ma'am. It has been a huge twenty twenty four

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Speaker 2: and we've loved being in your ears each and every

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Speaker 2: week with the latest business news stories. We cracked over

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Speaker 2: one thousand pot episodes, we celebrated millions of downloads. But

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Speaker 2: just to remind us, this is our last pod for

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty four and we'll be back fit and firing

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Speaker 2: on January twentieth, twenty twenty five. So if you're enjoying

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Speaker 2: the pod, please give us the greatest of holiday gifts

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Speaker 2: by hitting subscribe and giving us a five star rating

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Speaker 2: and review.

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Speaker 1: We don't really need a review, just a five star

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Speaker 1: rating and the subscribe three truly marvelous stories today, doesy boy?

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Speaker 1: Let's do it for our first, Quantus has agreed to

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Speaker 1: pay one hundred and twenty million dollars in compensation to

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundred former ground handlers who were illegally sacked.

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Speaker 2: Surely New CEO could just blame Old Sea over this one.

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Speaker 1: What is the story here, well, juzzyboy, Quantas, Australia's national

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Speaker 1: airline carrier, has been around since nineteen twenty two.

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Speaker 2: In fact, my friend at Quantus is the third oldest

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Speaker 2: operating airline in the world behind KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

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Speaker 2: and I've.

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Speaker 1: Janker Great Trivia Knowledge two fan favorite now ban.

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Speaker 2: During the pandemic, Quantus suffered some serious losses. We're talking

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Speaker 2: more than seven billion dollars. On top of that they

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Speaker 2: profited off ghost flights.

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Speaker 1: They faced an a Triple C inquiry and New CEO

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Speaker 1: mass layoffs the ban.

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Speaker 2: Back in October this year, the Federal court found that

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Speaker 2: Quantus had illegally fired eighteen hundred and twenty workers back

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty.

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Speaker 1: And rather than true redundancies, Quantus had outsourced to these

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Speaker 1: roles to contract it.

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Speaker 2: So now Quantus has agreed to pay one hundred and

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Speaker 2: twenty million bucks to the Transport Workers Union to pay

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Speaker 2: those affected workers and Juseyboy the Transport Workers Union is

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Speaker 2: calling this the large case of illegal sackings in Australian history.

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Speaker 2: That is huge for me. Man Quantus's new CEO, Vaness Hudson.

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Speaker 2: She's apologized and now let's move on from all of this.

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Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here? When a new

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Speaker 2: CEO steps into their role, they inherit the good, they

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Speaker 2: inherit the bad, and of course they're very ugly from

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Speaker 2: their predecessor.

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Speaker 1: The good thing for a fresh CEO is that they

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Speaker 1: can apologize for past mistakes without personally owning them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, these apologies can help the company rebuild investor and

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Speaker 2: customer trusts while distancing themselves from past errors from previous management.

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Speaker 1: And Vanessa Hudson has leaned hard into this story.

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Speaker 2: Poor call center service. Sorry about that it was on

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Speaker 2: previous CEO, Alan Joyce's watch ghost flights.

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Speaker 1: Deeply regretful, Alan Joyce again and now again the illegal sackings.

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Speaker 1: Let's settle the case that happened under my predecessor.

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Speaker 2: But here's a twistbeed Man. Despite all this turbulence, quantius

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Speaker 2: of share price is at an all time high.

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Speaker 1: Turns out, investors are loving Vanessa's apology.

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Speaker 2: Tool for our second story. Australia's Big four banks have

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Speaker 2: reduced their lending to fossil fuel companies over twenty percent

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Speaker 2: in the last two years after big pressure from climate activists.

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Speaker 2: Wow way billions and billions and billions. Jusey boy, tell

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Speaker 2: me more? Okay, so we know the big four banks

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Speaker 2: in Australia some of the biggest banks in the whole

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Speaker 2: wide world. Yep.

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Speaker 1: They lent to almost everyone, homeowners renovating their kitchens, businesses,

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Speaker 1: expanding their empires.

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Speaker 2: In fact, they man between CommBank and ZED, Westpac and NAB.

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Speaker 2: They lent forty three point four billion dollars to fossil

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Speaker 2: fuel businesses back in twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: But does boy. Activist groups and investors have been piling

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Speaker 1: on the pressure to stop lending to fossil fuel companies.

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Speaker 2: And it seems to be working.

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Speaker 1: Get this.

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Speaker 2: The Big four led thirty four billion dollars to fossil

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Speaker 2: fuel companies in twenty twenty four, or nearly ten billion

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Speaker 2: dollars less than twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: On top of that, the Big Four is pushing fossil

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Speaker 1: fuels companies to create climate transition plans if they want

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Speaker 1: to be eligible for future financing, and.

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Speaker 2: If they don't see legit transition plans by certain dates

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five, it means no more lending.

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Speaker 1: That is very interesting, juzy boy. So what is the

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Speaker 1: key learning here?

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Speaker 2: Thanks are being forced to balance commercial interests with the

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Speaker 2: need to address climate risks.

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Speaker 1: On the one hand, banks and all for profit companies

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Speaker 1: need to focus on maximizing their profit to deliver shareholder value.

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Speaker 2: But on the other hand, there's an argument they need

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Speaker 2: to maximize profits ethically, and a number of climate activists

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Speaker 2: and ESG conscious investors believe that fossil fuel lending it

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Speaker 2: just ain't right and clearly be Man The pressure has

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Speaker 2: worked because the Big four have dropped their lending to

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Speaker 2: fossil fuel companies by twenty two percent.

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Speaker 1: And the banks aren't the only companies being pressured by investors.

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Speaker 2: YEP. Remember back in twenty twenty one, when a small

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Speaker 2: activist investor grew called Engine Number one, won three seats

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Speaker 2: on the Exon Mobile board.

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Speaker 1: They booted off the old board members and started to

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Speaker 1: push for some changes from within. So who knows, be

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Speaker 1: Man and maybe hens Ed could be there for our

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Speaker 1: third and final story, of the year. Honda and Nissan

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Speaker 1: have confirmed that they're in talks are a mega merger

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Speaker 1: which could radically change the car market.

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Speaker 2: By the time we're back in January. By man, we

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Speaker 2: could be calling them Nissenda has an interesting ring to it.

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Speaker 1: Tell me more, well, we spoke on the pot a

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Speaker 1: few weeks ago about the recent demise of the good

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Speaker 1: company Nissan.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they warned they only had twelve to four eighteen

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Speaker 2: months of gas left in the tank if they didn't

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Speaker 2: make a big move. Not the cash guy. Yeah, there

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Speaker 2: was a hot minute when maybe the cash Kai, the

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Speaker 2: extral the pathfinder, they were going to disappear into the

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Speaker 2: history books of the car industry.

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Speaker 1: But now Honda and Nissan, who are both Japanese companies,

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Speaker 1: have confirmed they're looking to merge.

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Speaker 2: That's because both companies have kind of struggled lately.

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Speaker 1: Missen's profit margin cut by seventy percent over the past year, and.

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Speaker 2: Hundreds four year profits were expected to drop by more

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Speaker 2: than fourteen percent from.

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Speaker 1: The previous year, and the goal of this joint merger

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Speaker 1: would allow the companies to gain economies of scale.

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Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?

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Speaker 1: Economies of scale are the cost advantages that exist when

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Speaker 1: a company increases the scale or size of its operations.

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Speaker 2: In this case, Man, it's about the merged company producing

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Speaker 2: more cars for fewer costs. The cost of raw materials

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Speaker 2: is cheap out because you're buying in bulk.

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Speaker 1: The cost of producing the materials is cheaper because you

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Speaker 1: can make the most of your machines.

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Speaker 2: So be man. If Missing and Honda ti the knot,

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Speaker 2: they would become the third biggest car maker by sales volume,

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Speaker 2: only behind Toyota and Volkswagen.

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Speaker 1: And that means a whole lot more purchasing and it

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Speaker 1: also means more market share in Australia too. Yeap Nisson

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Speaker 1: has about four percent of the Australian car market, including yours,

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Speaker 1: and Honda has about six percent and does work. Clearly,

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Speaker 1: the market liked the sound of this news because Nissen

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Speaker 1: share price jumped by twenty four percent, if you don't mind.

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Speaker 2: Their biggest one day jump in over fifty years. It

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Speaker 2: has been a huge twenty twenty four and this is

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Speaker 2: our final farewell for the year. Enjoy the end of

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Speaker 2: the year, have a safe holiday season, and make sure

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Speaker 2: if you're missing some finance news and some business updates

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Speaker 2: over the break it's all in the Flux app, which

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Speaker 2: ain't going nowhere. Plenty of business news, finance courses and

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Speaker 2: budgeting tools to keep you occupied over that busy summer period.

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Speaker 2: A big thank you from Brett and I. We've had

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Speaker 2: an absolute ball this year and looking forward to twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and we'll see you in twenty twenty five.