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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, the twelfth of February twenty twenty five. 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 in just 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 Sewan.

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Speaker 1: Five stories, five minutes. Let's go story number one. Two

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Speaker 1: of the country's biggest and probably least understood companies outside

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Speaker 1: financial market reported yesterday. One was poorly received, the other

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Speaker 1: well received.

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Speaker 2: Poorly received was CSL. Its share price fell five percent

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Speaker 2: half The Blood Plasma Group announced the solid result problem

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Speaker 2: around its vaccination's business. It's the third biggest company on

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Speaker 2: the AX where one hundred and twenty six billion dollars

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Speaker 2: rent really hard in the decade pre COVID, but has

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Speaker 2: never fully recovered, down about eight percent in the last

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Speaker 2: year or so. Many of its operations are in the US.

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Speaker 2: It's got three main businesses. CSL Bearing, which is a

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Speaker 2: blood at Plasma Collections group going pretty well. It's about

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Speaker 2: two thirds of total revenue. Then there's Securists, which is

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Speaker 2: a Vita vaccinations. Not so good when you're in a

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Speaker 2: country where the new boss of Health is an anti vaxxa.

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Speaker 2: The third part, vifer iron deficiency products, only been owned

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Speaker 2: for two years by Sales Cell. Had some real problems there,

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Speaker 2: but just looks to be turning around now.

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Speaker 1: The other company Sewan is Macquarie Group. It gave a

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Speaker 1: quarterly update. The financial behemoth said things are on track,

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Speaker 1: with earnings in its asset management business offsetting lower earnings

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Speaker 1: in other parts of the business. Reliant on global markets

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Speaker 1: and commodities.

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Speaker 2: Training very complex business, this one, and that's why CEO

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Speaker 2: Shamara with Gramina Yaka thinks it's a good business because

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Speaker 2: it's diversified. So no matter what's happening in the economy,

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Speaker 2: it is I has finger in many pies. Therefore, where

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Speaker 2: it loses, it gains, and where it gains it loses.

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Speaker 2: That whole idea. A lot of the attention yesterday was

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Speaker 2: around its green assets. It's actually trying to sell some

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Speaker 2: of them at the moment now. Obviously the environment in

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Speaker 2: the US has changed given the lack of enthusiasm from

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Speaker 2: the Trump administration towards in assets. Wick Ramanoyaki yesterday said

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Speaker 2: if it takes longer to sell some of these assets

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Speaker 2: as a result, then they're closer to production, they're all

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Speaker 2: in development of the moment, and they might be worth more.

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Speaker 1: Sean story number two is potentially good news. We don't

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Speaker 1: really know yet. The federal government is cautiously optimistic that

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump's administration will not levy tariffs on Australian steel

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Speaker 1: and aluminium. After Prime Minister Anthony Alberzi spoke with the President.

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Speaker 2: They spoke about forty minutes, first call since Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: became president Australbernesi said he had a great conversation and

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Speaker 2: the US Australia relationship is in good shape. He pushed

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Speaker 2: the fact that we have a trade surplus with the

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Speaker 2: US in close bilateral defense and security ties. The two

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Speaker 2: agreed to say an exemption is under consideration now. Later,

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Speaker 2: mister Trump told reporters he's considering a carve out because

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Speaker 2: Australia is one of the very few nations with which

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Speaker 2: the US had a trade surplus, as in, we spend

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Speaker 2: more there than they spend here. He also described Anthony

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Speaker 2: Alberzi as a very fine man. There you go. We're

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Speaker 2: not there yet. Donald Trump certainly hasn't carved out places

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Speaker 2: like Canada, Mexico and Brazil, but misstrela needs he is

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Speaker 2: cautiously optimistic.

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Speaker 1: Story number three. Banana and sugar prices Sean are set

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Speaker 1: to jump on the back of the North Queensland floods.

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Speaker 2: Federal Treasury estimates up to twenty percent of Australia's banana

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Speaker 2: crop could be affected by the disaster as damage to

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Speaker 2: road networks hampers supply chains. The Federal Treasure of Jim Chalmers,

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Speaker 2: the flood affected region accounts for about four percent of

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Speaker 2: agricultural production in Australia. That'll actually hit economic growth. Zero

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Speaker 2: point one percentage points doesn't sound like much, but we

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Speaker 2: only grew by zero point eight last year, so zero

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Speaker 2: point one is quite significant in terms of price rises

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Speaker 2: be fairly narrow things like banana and sugar prices, but

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Speaker 2: they are likely for the people outside in North Queensland

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Speaker 2: they are likely to jump quite sharply in price in

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Speaker 2: coming weeks.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Story number four, this is interesting. There'll be more

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Speaker 1: bank branches in the Bush with the Federal government increasing

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Speaker 1: funding for Australia Posts banking operations.

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Speaker 2: So at the moment Ossie Post does banking for the

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Speaker 2: Commonwealth National Australia Bank Westpac ain Z is now going

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Speaker 2: to do that as well mcquarien, HSBC or in negotiations

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Speaker 2: Ozzi Posts getting more money from the government to be

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Speaker 2: able to open banking outlets in regional Australia. Treasure Jim

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Speaker 2: Chalmers said thirty six percent of bank branches in country

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Speaker 2: Australia have closed since twenty seventeen. The idea with Ossie

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Speaker 2: Post being able to represent all these different banks is

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Speaker 2: that that will actually stem the loss of branches in

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Speaker 2: the bush.

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Speaker 1: Okay last one story number five. A consortium of investors

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Speaker 1: led by Elon Musk is offering ninety seven billion US

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Speaker 1: dollars or one hundred and fifty five billion Ossie to

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Speaker 1: buy the nonprofit company that controls open Ai, which is

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Speaker 1: the organization behind chat GPT.

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Speaker 2: Now it puts Elon Musk against open Ai CEO Sam Altman.

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Speaker 2: The two actually open Ai as a charity. In twenty fifteen,

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Speaker 2: Musk left the company. Four years later, lots has gone on.

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Speaker 2: It is still a charity, but there's part of it

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Speaker 2: which is actually for profit business that's allowed Microsoft to

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Speaker 2: invest in it. For example, Sam Altman is in the

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Speaker 2: process of turning that subsidiary into a traditional company then

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Speaker 2: getting rid of the nonprofit stuff. According to Wall Street

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Speaker 2: Journal funny about this one, the offer was made Altman

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Speaker 2: not interested. He posted on Musk's ex social media platform,

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Speaker 2: of course, Donald Elon Musk brought that for forty four

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Speaker 2: billion dollars. Sam Molton's response, no, thank you, but we

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Speaker 2: will buy Twitter for nine point seventy four billion dollars

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Speaker 2: if you want.

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Speaker 1: That's quite the rivalry. There we go, the top five

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

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Speaker 1: It is Wednesday, the twelfth of February twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: in a few hours. I'm Michael Thompson and that was

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Speaker 1: the fast five business news by Fear and Greed. Have

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Speaker 1: a great day.