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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, the second of October twenty twenty four. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed,

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Speaker 1: where we give you the top five business stories you

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Speaker 1: need to know. When it's five minutes, I'm Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Five stories in five minutes. Let's go. Story number one.

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Speaker 1: Qatar Airways will buy twenty five percent of Virgin Australia

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Speaker 1: from its private equity owner, Bain Capital.

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Speaker 2: As part of the deal, Virgin will resume flying long

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Speaker 2: haul international roots to Europe using Qatar's planes. It means

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Speaker 2: passengers get more competition in the long haul market and

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Speaker 2: there's no need for government approval for additional flights. The

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Speaker 2: deal is subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval. It

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Speaker 2: helps Bain start offloading its ownership of Virgin, which it

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Speaker 2: took control of back in twenty twenty in the middle

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Speaker 2: of the COVID pandemic. It will also be subject to

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Speaker 2: the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approval process. Both labors

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Speaker 2: at Bill Shorten and Opposition leader Peter Dutton welcome the announcement.

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Speaker 2: Plenty of bits and pieces going on in this one.

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Speaker 2: Remember last year the federal government blocked Katar from flying

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Speaker 2: more services in the Sydney, Melbourne, Brison and Perth. While

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Speaker 2: this somewhat circumvents that problem for Qatar, Virgin CEO Jane

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Speaker 2: Hrdlicka said the investment is the missing piece in Virgin's

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Speaker 2: long term strategy. The deal brings scale to the carrier,

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Speaker 2: allowing it better to compete with Quantas Virgin frequent flights

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Speaker 2: should also benefit.

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Speaker 1: So the general gist of what you're saying, Sean, is

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Speaker 1: that the deal should be good news for passengers wanting

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Speaker 1: long haul flights.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yes, that's it. Since its reinvention, Virgin has been

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Speaker 2: a cautious competitor, and apart from flights to Bali, Thailand

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Speaker 2: and Fiji, it has pretty much left international routes alone.

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Speaker 2: The domestic end of the market, following the collapse of

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Speaker 2: Bonzer and administration of Regional Express, now has a very

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Speaker 2: dominant Quantus jet Star with about sixty two percent of

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Speaker 2: the market, Virgin about half that level. This deal is

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Speaker 2: about international roots, and judging by the four per cent

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Speaker 2: drop in Quantus' share price yesterday, analysts believe it will

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Speaker 2: put more competition into the market. There's more though, Virgin

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Speaker 2: gets some serious aviation clout with Katar as a sharfler,

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Speaker 2: which could flow through the lower fuel and aircraft maintenance costs.

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Speaker 2: Qatar should also attract interest from other potential investors. Qatar

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Speaker 2: is also a shareholder and a bunch of other airlines.

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Speaker 2: You put all that together, it's good news for Virgin

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Speaker 2: and probably good news for passengers, all right.

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Speaker 1: Moving on to story number two now, and the federal

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Speaker 1: government is working to get Australian citizens out of Lebanon

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Speaker 1: as Israel launched as a ground invasion into the country.

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Speaker 2: Some commercial airlines are still flying to Lebanon, though there's

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Speaker 2: a risk that the international airport will close. The government

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Speaker 2: for months has been calling on people to leave the country.

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Speaker 2: The Canadian government has secured eight hundred seats on commercial

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Speaker 2: flights for its citizens. Yesterday, Treasure Jim Chalmers urged restraint

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Speaker 2: from all sides, saying Australia was gravely concerned for the

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Speaker 2: human cost of an escalation of this conflict. Yesterday morning,

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Speaker 2: Australian time, Israeli forces crossed into southern Lebanon, marking a

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Speaker 2: significant escalation of the crisis. The last time Israel and

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Speaker 2: Hesbela engaged in ground combat was a month long war

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Speaker 2: in two thousand and six. The Israeli military said it

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Speaker 2: had begun a limited, localized and target ground rate against

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Speaker 2: Hesbula and the border area of southern Lebanon. It's also

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Speaker 2: carrying out air strikes.

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Speaker 1: Story number three sean retail trade jumped a surprisingly high

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Speaker 1: zero point seven percent in August. But the reason, the

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Speaker 1: reason this is why this story is so interesting. It's

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Speaker 1: because of the warmer than usual weather.

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Speaker 2: Yes, was the warmest month of August on record, which

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Speaker 2: means since nineteen ten, and the Bureau Statistics said there

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Speaker 2: was a bunch of people bringing forward spring purchases. Why

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Speaker 2: did they say that people were buying more summer clothing,

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Speaker 2: more liquor, outdoor dining goods, hardware, gardening items, camping goods,

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Speaker 2: and outdoor equipment. Now, given the tax cuts from July

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Speaker 2: one strong employment market still pick up. Isn't surprising that

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Speaker 2: the size of the improvement is somewhat a surprise. The

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Speaker 2: retail sales figures jump around a bit. When there's a boom,

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Speaker 2: often that's followed by a pullback in spending. Overall sales

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Speaker 2: are up more than three percent over the past twelve months,

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Speaker 2: so that's been helped by population growth.

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Speaker 1: All right. Moving on now to story number four. The

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Speaker 1: latest radio ratings across the country have shifted the playing

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Speaker 1: field somewhat to GB, the former number one station in

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Speaker 1: Sydney has slumped to fourth, while ABC's main stations in Melbourne,

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Speaker 1: Adelaide and Perth have all lost ground.

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Speaker 2: The other big news from the ratings is the performance

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Speaker 2: of Kiss FM's morning team of Kyle Sanderlan's and Jackie

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Speaker 2: Henderson Jackie O, as she's better known. Their share in

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Speaker 2: Sydney fell to thirteen point seven percent, though they did

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Speaker 2: come in at number one, ahead of a tumbling ben

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Speaker 2: Fordham at two GB. But in Melbourne, where they launched

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Speaker 2: earlier in the year with much fanfare, the numbers are poor,

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Speaker 2: falling another zero point nine percentage points to five point

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Speaker 2: two percent. Three AW remains a clear number one in Melbourne,

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Speaker 2: with a Breakfast in morning shows doing very well, while

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Speaker 2: Arn Media's Kiss FM was number one in Sydney according

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Speaker 2: to measuring group GfK. At the ABC, the radio national

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Speaker 2: flagship program RN Breakfast lost more listeners in Sydney, Melbourne

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Speaker 2: and Perth. Only Breakfast in Sydney with Craig Rucastle was

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Speaker 2: a big improver for the ABC.

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Speaker 1: Last one story Number five. Megalopolis, the front Ford Coppolar

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Speaker 1: film that was financed by the director himself, opened in

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Speaker 1: the US over the weekend, and unfortunately it bombed.

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Speaker 2: It did. The eighty five year old mister Cobbler spent

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Speaker 2: decades on the avant garde fable, ultimately selling part of

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Speaker 2: his wine business to raise the necessary funds about one

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Speaker 2: hundred and twenty million dollars in production costs, twenty million

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Speaker 2: or so in marketing and distribution expenses, but Miviego has

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Speaker 2: rejected the film, according to report in New York Times.

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Speaker 2: In fact, ticket sales from Thursday through Sunday about four

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Speaker 2: million dollars across North America. It played in two thousand theaters.

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Speaker 2: It's about a brilliant architect played by Adam Driver, who

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Speaker 2: wants a society to lift itself out of the gutter. Now.

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Speaker 2: Ticket buyers gave the film a D plus grade in

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Speaker 2: Cinema Score exit polls, and that's rare for a big

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Speaker 2: budget movie from a major director, particularly to get less

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Speaker 2: than a B minus. So definitely a flop.

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Speaker 1: All right, there we go. The top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes. Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael. It

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Speaker 1: is Wednesday, the second of October twenty twenty four. Remember

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Speaker 1: to hit follow on the podcast and if five minutes

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Speaker 1: isn't you can find our longer daily show called Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed wherever you listen to podcasts and Today's Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: which means there is a new episode of our sister podcast,

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Speaker 1: how Do They Afford That? Out today. Today's episode is

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Speaker 1: all about buying a house or buying a property with

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Speaker 1: a Garran tour. What's involved, some of the risks and

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Speaker 1: some of the benefits that you need to be aware of.

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Speaker 1: We go into all of it with an expert who

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Speaker 1: takes us through it chapter and verse. You can find

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Speaker 1: that wherever you listen to podcasts, and I'll put a

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Speaker 1: link in today's show notes as well. I'm Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and that was the fast five business news by Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed.

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Speaker 2: Have a great day.