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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fear and Greed business news. You can use.

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Speaker 1: Today's shareholders dramatically oust the chair of James Hardy over

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Speaker 1: its controversial fourteen billion dollar merger with the US building

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Speaker 1: materials company. Donald Trump meets Shi Jinping and promises to

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Speaker 1: accelerate US nuclear testing and cold records much faster sales

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Speaker 1: growth than art rival Woolworth's. Plus and Video becomes the

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Speaker 1: first company to be valued at five trillion US dollars,

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Speaker 1: and Bunnings and Kmart worn of a big rise and

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Speaker 1: aggressive behavior from shoppers. It is Friday, the thirty first

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Speaker 1: of October twenty twenty five. Michael Thompson and good morning,

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Speaker 1: Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: The main story this morning is really quite remarkable, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: The chair of James Hardy and Lloyd has been dumped

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Speaker 1: by shareholders of the building materials companies. Really, she's paying

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Speaker 1: the price here for the controversial fourteen billion dollar merger

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Speaker 1: with US group Aazek, which went ahead without an investor vote.

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Speaker 2: Seldom does a chair get dumped like Lloyd did yesterday.

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Speaker 2: But she was defiant until the end, saying the Hardys

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Speaker 2: AAEC deal will build long term value for shareholders quick recap.

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Speaker 2: James Hardy merged with AAZEK without a shareholder vote. They

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Speaker 2: announced it in March. Was done by about the middle

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Speaker 2: of the year or just after the middle of the year.

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Speaker 2: Since the announcement of the deal, which many shareholders disagreed with,

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Speaker 2: James Hardy's share price is down fifteen percent. If you

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Speaker 2: take it about a week before the deal was announced,

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Speaker 2: it's down about thirty five percent. James Hardy is listed

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Speaker 2: on the AX but domicoled in Ireland, which is where

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Speaker 2: yesterday's seventeen minute an your General meeting was held. It

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Speaker 2: does most of its business in the US. Lloyd and

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Speaker 2: two other directors were voted out by shareholders. All four

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Speaker 2: major proxy firms who cover James Hardy called for Lloyd

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Speaker 2: to be dumped. They got their wish. The council this

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Speaker 2: joining Council of Superannuation Investors, which represents some of the

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Speaker 2: biggest players in the industry. So the result was a

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Speaker 2: clear signal of the need for change at James Hardy.

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Speaker 1: I know this story is about James Hardy, but surely

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Speaker 1: there's a broader message in this for chairs and for

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Speaker 1: boards that treat shareholders poorly and you're going to feel

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Speaker 1: their wrath, right.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I think that's right, especially when share prices have tumbled.

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Speaker 2: Take a few examples this AGM season. CSL was hit

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Speaker 2: with a second strike earlier in the week against its

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Speaker 2: remuneration report. Remember, its share price has been absolutely hammered.

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Speaker 2: Mcquarie Group at its AGM in July received its first

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Speaker 2: strike in its fifty six year history. The one I'm

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Speaker 2: looking forward to is Domino's AGM in two weeks time.

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Speaker 2: We know, well, there wasn't a takeover bid this week,

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Speaker 2: but there's rumors of a takeover bid, but its share

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Speaker 2: price is down more than eighty percent since its peak.

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Speaker 2: That'll be a really good one to watch too. I

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Speaker 2: must say that James Hardy is a particularly egregious example

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Speaker 2: of ignoring shareholders. Not only did the board to emerge

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Speaker 2: without going to a shareholder vote. Nothing illegal in that,

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Speaker 2: by the way, they were allowed to do that. But

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Speaker 2: you know, as you might put, it doesn't pass the

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Speaker 2: pub test that one. James Hardy also downgraded earnings subsequent

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Speaker 2: to the deal. After the deal and just three days

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Speaker 2: after the CEO's long term incentive was cashed out at

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Speaker 2: the pre downgrade share price, According to proxy group ownership matters.

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Speaker 2: That meant the CEO, Aaron Erta, ended up about one

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Speaker 2: point one million US dollars better off. Shareholders did not

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Speaker 2: like that one. Also, Lloyd, ahead of the vote yesterday,

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Speaker 2: didn't travel to Australia to talk face to face to

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Speaker 2: long term Hardy shareholders. James Harty might mostly operate in

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Speaker 2: the US, but its shareholders are mostly Australian. It has

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Speaker 2: a storied, not always positive reputation in Australia. It is

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Speaker 2: an Australian company for the time being. It is essentially

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Speaker 2: James Harty didn't listen to shareholders. Three members of the

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Speaker 2: board got shafted, including the chair. I don't reckon they

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Speaker 2: deserved it.

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Speaker 1: That is a spectacular story. Have you have you seen

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Speaker 1: anything like this in terms of the swift retribution of

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Speaker 1: furious shareholders. No.

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Speaker 2: I'm trying to think AMP probably had a few years back,

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Speaker 2: probably somewhat similar in terms of performance. So I just

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Speaker 2: can't bring the details to mind to say, well, that's

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Speaker 2: a good example. There were years ago companies like Burns

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Speaker 2: Philip went under on the back of on sort of

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Speaker 2: some of the government's issues, but not in recent times.

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Speaker 2: I can't remember anything like this.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really quite something, all right now Sean. US

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Speaker 1: President Donald Trump and Chinese President Jijing Ping faced off

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Speaker 1: at a South Korean military facility yesterday afternoon, Australian type

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Speaker 1: facing off. They were shaking hands.

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Speaker 2: At least I know. But did you see Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: his enthusiastic self, Jijing Ping stony faced?

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Speaker 1: Yes, The body language said a lot. Didn't know this

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Speaker 1: was a It was a one hundred minute meeting. They

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Speaker 1: covered a fair bit of ground.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so ahead of it, Donald Trump was talking about

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Speaker 2: the prospects of a trade deal. She basically said it

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Speaker 2: was normal for two leading economies to have frictions, though

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Speaker 2: he did praise Trump's efforts to resolve global conflicts, including

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Speaker 2: in Gaza and Southeast Asia. The meeting, according to Trump,

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Speaker 2: as reported in the New York Times, was Trump's word amazing.

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Speaker 2: He praised she as a great leader of a very powerful,

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Speaker 2: very strong country. He said, the pair reached, again, I'll

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Speaker 2: quote him, an outstanding group of decisions China. China agreed

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Speaker 2: to increase efforts to curb the export of precursor chemicals

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Speaker 2: used to manufacture fentanyl, while the US will cut fentanyl

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Speaker 2: related tariffs impersonally this year from twenty percent to ten percent.

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Speaker 2: China's also paused a rare Earth's licensing regime for at

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Speaker 2: least a year. Donald Trump, somewhats risingly said he'd visit

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Speaker 2: China in April next year, and then she would visit

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Speaker 2: the US after that. Ahead of the meeting, which is

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Speaker 2: probably of more significance in some ways, Trump took to

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Speaker 2: social media to announce he's instructed the US Department of War,

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Speaker 2: as he calls it, to accelerate its nuclear weapons testing

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Speaker 2: on an equal basis. Now presumably on an equal basis

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Speaker 2: refers to Russia and China. Moscow, for example, recently started

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Speaker 2: trials of a nuclear powered underwater drone and a nuclear

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Speaker 2: capable missile. So what Trump has done in response is

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Speaker 2: to accelerate testing of nuclear weapons.

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Speaker 1: It's been not twenty years or more than twenty years

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Speaker 1: since they've really been doing this. They basically a self

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Speaker 1: imposed or voluntary moratorium on it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to get your head around

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Speaker 2: quite because Donald Trump says things that never come to fruition.

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Speaker 2: It's really hard to know where this lands. If the

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Speaker 2: US is seriously accelerating nuclear testing, that is a big

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Speaker 2: big concern.

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Speaker 1: Doesn't even need to do it though, in order to

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Speaker 1: provoke a response now from those other countries that you mentioned.

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Speaker 1: It's just slightly worrying time, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Let's it's one of an understatement, Michael.

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Speaker 1: Let's bring things back home now. The ASX how do

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Speaker 1: things go yesterday?

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Speaker 2: Positively dull compared to the first couple of stories, not

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Speaker 2: at all. The SPIX two hundred closed down half a

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Speaker 2: percent to eight and eighty six points, with talks of

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Speaker 2: interest rate cuts off the table for this year. The

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Speaker 2: interest rate sensitive stocks for under pressure property companies, for example,

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Speaker 2: consuming discretionary stocks were also sold off. Wes Farmers was

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Speaker 2: worst of the top two hundred, down more than seven percent.

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Speaker 2: Talk about that in a moment. Among the best performers

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Speaker 2: the lithium companies and finest. Some good news for CSL

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Speaker 2: shareholders is share price more than five percent.

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Speaker 1: It's Halloween today, cheers. You know what's scary? Just how

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Speaker 1: great the Fear and Greed mea mugs caps are.

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Speaker 2: And perfect color for Halloween too, like.

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Speaker 1: I'm white, yep, yep. And today is the last day

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Speaker 1: to sign up for the Fear and Greed newsletter. If

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Speaker 1: today you or jump on to I'll put in the

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Speaker 1: show notes as well as you just click straight through there,

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Speaker 1: pop your email address in, sign up to the newsletter

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Speaker 1: and you go into the draw. All right, Sean quick break.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back in a moment with the rest of

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Speaker 1: the day's business news. Sean. Prime Minister Anthony Ibanezy is

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Speaker 1: likely to skip this year's United Nations Global Climate Change

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Speaker 1: Summit in Brazil in just over a week, raising doubts

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Speaker 1: about Australia's prospects of hosting next year's event in Adelaide.

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Speaker 1: It's not a great look, it is.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure if we were going to be announced next

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Speaker 2: week in Brazil as the host of the next COP

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Speaker 2: thirty one, it'll be Albow would have been there.

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Speaker 1: It's like not going to the Oscars. Yeah, once you've

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Speaker 1: been nominated, because you've got a tip that you're not

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Speaker 1: going to win.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I mean, of course he's in career at

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Speaker 2: the moment. For the APEC summit, he's going to South

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Speaker 2: Africa in the second half of next month November for

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Speaker 2: the G twenty Climate change and then Energy Mister Chris

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Speaker 2: Energy Minister Chris Bullen will attend the COP thirty summit

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Speaker 2: in Brazil. We find out who actually has next year's summit.

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Speaker 2: At that point, Basically, we've been locked in a standoff

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Speaker 2: with Turkey for months unless either side of yels to

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Speaker 2: falls back to the German city of bond. Meanwhile, back

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Speaker 2: in South Korea, Albanezi refused to back you as President

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump's assertion that tariff's are good few wes alliances. Instead,

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Speaker 2: the Prime Minister said, free and fair trade is good

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Speaker 2: for the world.

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Speaker 1: So unless Turkey gives up, or unless we give up it,

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Speaker 1: he felt somewhere else entirely, So we're playing chicken with Turkey.

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Speaker 2: There we go like that, didn't you?

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Speaker 1: It's quite the setup for it too. So while at

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Speaker 1: APEX in South Korea, Anthony Albernezi got to sit on

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Speaker 1: the preferred right side of Donald Trump at an intimate

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Speaker 1: dinner for eight national leaders, which was called a Special

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Speaker 1: Dinner in honor of President Donald Donald J. Trump.

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Speaker 2: Okay, is anyone else seek of this sickophantic behavior of

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Speaker 2: all the world's leaders towards Donald Trump.

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Speaker 1: I think it's great theater.

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Speaker 2: How much sucking up can you do? Everyone does it.

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Speaker 1: There's so much on off like, there's so much at

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Speaker 1: stay here. You've got to do it. You got to

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Speaker 1: play the game.

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Speaker 2: He can see through it. Surely his advisors can see

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Speaker 2: through it.

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Speaker 1: No, I don't know. I reckon it is such an

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Speaker 1: echo chamber that everyone's just going, hey, see how great

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Speaker 1: we are.

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Speaker 2: In this latest version, the intimate dinner was at the Hilton.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't an APEC leaders meeting, but as you called it,

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Speaker 2: a special dinner and dinner in honor of President Donald J. Trump.

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Speaker 2: There was a Trump branded Shardonnade, Trump Brandon, Cabgnet Savignon

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Speaker 2: is all, according to the VBC. Apart from Trump and Albow,

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Speaker 2: there were the leaders of South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam,

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Speaker 2: and Canada. Now Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, he was

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Speaker 2: seated furthest away from Trump. The two aren't getting on

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Speaker 2: at the moment. In fact, Trump had tweeted, for those

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Speaker 2: that are asking, we didn't come to South Korea to

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Speaker 2: see Canada, I'm not sure who was asking that Anyway,

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Speaker 2: I'm just a bit over the behavior of global leaders

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Speaker 2: towards Donald Trump.

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Speaker 1: Feels like we might need to discuss this in the

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Speaker 1: weekend edition tomorrow.

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Speaker 2: Yes, possibly.

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Speaker 1: Now. Coles has recorded a much bigger jump in sales

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Speaker 1: than art rival Woolworth, saying supermarket revenue was up four

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Speaker 1: point eight percent to nearly ten billion dollars in the

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Speaker 1: September quarter.

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Speaker 2: On Wednesday, we found out Wooly supermarket sales were up

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Speaker 2: two point one percent to fifteen billion dollars. Cole's is

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Speaker 2: the growth momentum. Woolies has the size. Coal's group, which

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Speaker 2: includes the supermarkets as well as liquorand bottle shops, up

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Speaker 2: about four percent online growth, strong alcohol sales week tobacco

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Speaker 2: sales have tumbled, just like Woolies. Cole's boss Leah Weckertt

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Speaker 2: said supermarket sales are growing at a similar pace now

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Speaker 2: Cole's sales. It's a similar pace for this at where

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Speaker 2: we are at the moment. After that quarter, Coal sales

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Speaker 2: were boosted by the roll out of new distribution centers,

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Speaker 2: which have made it easier and cheap for the company

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Speaker 2: to get products onto shelves, particularly in Melbourne. Having said

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Speaker 2: all that, Cold share price was down quite a bit yesterday,

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Speaker 2: Woolies was up quite a bit in the past couple

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Speaker 2: of days. Notwithstanding these numbers, there has been a noticeable

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Speaker 2: shift investor momentum away from Coal's towards Woolies. May not last,

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Speaker 2: but it's going to be really interesting to watch.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and JB hi Fi's share price tumbled four percent

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Speaker 1: yesterday after releasing a bit of a mixed quarterly update.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Sales locally in Australia at JB UP New Zealand

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Speaker 2: was good. At Good Guys, which is a subsidiary of

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Speaker 2: jbhi Phi half not so good. Black Friday eight hundred

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Speaker 2: New year will be very important for JB hi Fi.

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Speaker 1: It is a very busy time for the retailers and

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Speaker 1: West Farmers yesterday held its AGM, Bunnings and Kmart, two

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Speaker 1: of the conglomerates' major businesses, and shareholders were told that

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Speaker 1: staff across those stores experienced more than thirteen thousand, five

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Speaker 1: hundred threatening incidents from customers in the past year. What

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Speaker 1: is wrong with people?

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Speaker 2: What is wrong with people? That includes one thousand physical

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Speaker 2: assaults and several hundred threats of serious harm. It's ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: It does put pressure on state governments to roll out

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Speaker 2: tougher retail crime laws. I think they should. At Bunnings,

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Speaker 2: a number of incidents jumped sixty six percent. At Kmart

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Speaker 2: aren't nearly thirty percent now. These figures also include incidents

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Speaker 2: at Priceline, pharmacies and office works with Bunnings, which Bunnings owns.

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Speaker 2: In its training outlook, Wes Farmer's chief executive Rob Scott said,

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Speaker 2: while consumer demand has remained positive, there were persistent cost

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Speaker 2: of living pressures that had led to subdued sales growth.

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Speaker 2: This is one of the biggest retailers in the country

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Speaker 2: and the fact that it is worried about sales growth

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Speaker 2: cost of living pressures is significant. Wes Farmers share price

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Speaker 2: closed down seven percent yesterday, the worst of the ASEX

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Speaker 2: two hundred.

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Speaker 1: Okay, turning to international news now and the US Federal

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Speaker 1: Reserve cut interest rates yesterday morning, but chared your own

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Speaker 1: power made it very clear that another reduction is not

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Speaker 1: a foregone conclusion. I heard you mentioned this in the

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Speaker 1: afternoon report yesterday. Sean. His quote was, if you were

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Speaker 1: driving in the fog, you're slow down.

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Speaker 2: Great quote.

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Speaker 1: It's just great, isn't It helps you? Really understand it,

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Speaker 1: but the news was somewhat overshadowed by profit results from

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Speaker 1: META from Microsoft and Alphabet, and the fact that chip

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Speaker 1: maker and Video became the world's first company to have

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Speaker 1: a market capitalization of five trillion US dollars or a

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Speaker 1: casual what seven and a half seven point six seven

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Speaker 1: point seven trillion Aussie.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not bad. And Video is now twenty five

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Speaker 2: percent bigger than the number two company, which is Microsoft.

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Speaker 2: Quite phenomenal. If we go to the earnings results, Microsoft's

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Speaker 2: as your Cloud business is surging. The tech giant beat

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Speaker 2: revenue and profit expectations. Alphabet, parent of Google, of course,

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Speaker 2: delivered big rises in revenue and earnings metas revenue beat expectations,

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Speaker 2: but its earnings were hit by one off tax bill.

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Speaker 2: Now its share price actually fell sharply enoughter Hours Training

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Speaker 2: about nine percent because the company said it needs to

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Speaker 2: boost capital expenditure this year and next year as it

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Speaker 2: pushes to get the computing power it needs to realize

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Speaker 2: AI throughout its business. What I think is really interesting

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Speaker 2: there is just how much power they need and how

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Speaker 2: costly that's going to be for these companies.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, extraordinary, Okay, Sean up next is Fear and Greed

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Speaker 1: Q and A. Today we are speaking with Giovanni Dolci,

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Speaker 1: who is essentially the two I see it. I'm the

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Speaker 1: film production company, also have the big, massive, massive cinemas.

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Speaker 1: He's in the country for a little while and just

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Speaker 1: talked about the business of filmmaking. Oh wow, it's a

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Speaker 1: fun chat.

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Speaker 2: I look forward to it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's coming up next to the Fear and Greed

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Speaker 1: playlist on your podcast platform or at Fearangreed dot com

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Speaker 1: dot au. Thank you very much, Sean, Thank.

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Speaker 2: You, Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Friday, the thirty first of October twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Make sure you're following the podcast and please join us

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Speaker 1: online on LinkedIn, Instagram, ex TikTok and Facebook. I'm Michael

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Speaker 1: Thompson and that was Fear and Greed. Have a great day.