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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, the twenty fifth of February twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Welcome 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. Are Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and Good morning, Sean Ayleman.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Five big stories to get through in just five minutes,

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Speaker 1: so I better get going. Story number one, wires Tech Global,

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Speaker 1: one of the best performing stocks of recent years, is

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Speaker 1: in crisis today, Sean, with four directors resigning yesterday and

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Speaker 1: plenty of unanswered questions around founder and major shareholder Richard White. Now.

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Speaker 2: One of the resignations came from the chairman, Richard Danery.

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Speaker 2: Also Lisa Brock, Mike Malone and Fiona pac Poy all

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Speaker 2: resigned too. The statement to the ASEX said it followed

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Speaker 2: intractable differences in the board and differing views around the

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Speaker 2: ongoing role of the founder and founding CEO Richard White,

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Speaker 2: not helping the company in terms of share price at

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Speaker 2: least down greater earnings outlook thanks to delay in three

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Speaker 2: new products. Y Sex share price closed down twenty percent yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Richard White very big presence at that company. He's worth

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Speaker 2: six and a half billion dollars, having founded the group

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Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety four. Now earlier this month and Nine

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Speaker 2: reported three women had come forward with allegations involving mister White.

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Speaker 2: That follows a number of allegations last year involving former

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Speaker 2: partners of mister White. He was forced to stand down

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Speaker 2: from a s CEO of the company in October last year,

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Speaker 2: but he got a one million dollar consultancy reporting to

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Speaker 2: the board. Media reports say that deal hasn't been signed yet,

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Speaker 2: and now we have four directors resigning.

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Speaker 1: It's a very dramatic date, Sean. Have you ever seen

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Speaker 1: four directors, all independent, resigned from a board on mass

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Speaker 1: like that?

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Speaker 2: Not that I can recall. No, the facult why's taking

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Speaker 2: out the consultancy ten year deal last October and still

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Speaker 2: hasn't been signed, shows there's trouble of foot White as

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Speaker 2: thirty eight percent of the company, he's been running it

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Speaker 2: for thirty one years, very successful. I mean, that's pretty

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Speaker 2: hard to push someone like that aside. And it's worth

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Speaker 2: noting it's the independent directors that have resigned. It's been

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Speaker 2: four months since all that happened Marth October and we

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Speaker 2: still haven't found or wise tech Global still hasn't found

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Speaker 2: another CEO. I'm not sure that would be that easy.

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Speaker 2: A gig with Richard White as consultant. Its results come

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Speaker 2: out tomorrow. I think we'll find out more about it then.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, all right on to story number two. Now

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Speaker 1: into politics. The Coalition SEAN has opened up a fifty

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Speaker 1: two to forty eight percent lead in the polls on

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Speaker 1: a two party preferred basis, although Prime Minister Anthony Albernezi's

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Speaker 1: personal approval rating has.

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Speaker 2: Improved certainly for everyone in this Afar fresh Water Strategy poll.

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Speaker 2: The election is due in the next couple of months.

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Speaker 2: The poll was you first taken after last week's interest

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Speaker 2: rate cut. The swing away from Labour since last election

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Speaker 2: about four point one percentage points. If that occurred across

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Speaker 2: the country, which is unlikely, the coalition could form government.

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Speaker 2: Would get seventy six seats. That's what you need to

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Speaker 2: form government in the Federal Parliament, the Freshwater Strategy said.

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Speaker 2: The poll suggests an outcome of the Coalition winning seventy

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Speaker 2: seventy seats ALP sixty seven and thirteen very power crossbenches

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Speaker 2: anyw Albneasy then approval ratings minus eleven percent, not as

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Speaker 2: good as Peter Dunn's at minus eight percent. Neither great Day,

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Speaker 2: Let's be honest preferred Prime Minister Anthony Albanezy forty five

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Speaker 2: to forty three percent.

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Speaker 1: On Just Story number three. And Perpetual has walked away

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Speaker 1: from its two point one eight billion dollar deal with

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Speaker 1: KKR after rejecting the private equity giants last ditch offer

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Speaker 1: to get the transaction over the line.

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Speaker 2: Perpetual said it had terminated the scheme of arrangement after

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Speaker 2: the parties were unable to meet on price to salvage

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Speaker 2: the deal for its wealth and corporate trust units. Perpetual

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Speaker 2: and KKR were locked in negotiations for weeks after the

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Speaker 2: Tax Office surprised the wealth manager in December indicating it

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Speaker 2: would charge a half billion dollar tax bill on the

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Speaker 2: move to separate its businesses and remove any franking credit

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Speaker 2: any franking benefits for shareholders. That pretty much did the

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Speaker 2: deal over. The Australian is reporting that the party's explored

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Speaker 2: alternative structures to unlock value couldn't come up with it.

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Speaker 2: Perpetual share price was down two percent yesterday, although it

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Speaker 2: is up sixteen percent this year has done pretty well

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Speaker 2: this year.

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Speaker 1: Number four is interesting, Sean. I mean they're all interesting,

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Speaker 1: but this one is particularly interesting because demand for petrol

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Speaker 1: and diesel in Australia has hit a new all time high,

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Speaker 1: notwithstanding this push into electric vehicles by so many consumers.

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Speaker 2: So Chief executive of Ampole Matt Halliday made that claim

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Speaker 2: about petrol and diesel as he conceded the company's finding

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Speaker 2: the roll out of EV charging stations slower than hoped.

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Speaker 2: Ampole supplies about a quarter of total transport fuel in Australia. Now,

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Speaker 2: the take up of EV's last year in Australia was

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Speaker 2: flat declining in New Zealand. And that's and he said,

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Speaker 2: so people are still demanding petrol and diesel. And as

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Speaker 2: you mentioned, at a record level. Ampole Reporter had a

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Speaker 2: big drop in profit for the second half of last

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Speaker 2: year because its Littan oil refinery has slipped into loss.

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Speaker 2: In terms of the EV charging stations, mister Halliday said,

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Speaker 2: the big issue is actually about connecting it to the

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Speaker 2: grid and finding green energy to be able to power

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Speaker 2: up the cars. In the end, Ampole's share price closed

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Speaker 2: down th two percent yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Last one story number five billionaire at Lassian co founder

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Speaker 1: Mike cannon Brooks has accused his former company secretary of

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Speaker 1: secretly emailing confidential information about his private companies to his

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Speaker 1: estranged wife, Annie cannon Brooks.

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Speaker 2: Kevin Chu was terminated as secretary of canon Brooks Services

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Speaker 2: earlier this month after the company alleged he used his

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Speaker 2: personal email to send documents belonging to the company to Any.

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Speaker 2: Cannon Brooks and former chief financial officer, cast from Manuel

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one two, was appointed company secretary of

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Speaker 2: canon Brooks Services, the cannon Brooks Foundation and another of

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Speaker 2: a number of other entities, including the investment vehicle CBC code.

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Speaker 2: That's the one of which canon Brooks owns AGL Energy.

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Speaker 2: Mike cannon Brooks separated from Any in twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 2: She stepped down from the company soon after. They've not

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Speaker 2: finalized the division of assets, estimated to be worth twenty

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Speaker 2: four point four billion dollars. They did say this is

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Speaker 2: where this all emerges from. Canon Brooks is now pursuing

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Speaker 2: CHWO in this Preme Court of New South walest prevent

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Speaker 2: him from using or sharing any confidential information. SUS lawyers

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Speaker 2: said his client denies wrongdoing all.

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Speaker 1: Right, ever, go the top five business stories in five minutes.

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Speaker 1: Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael. It is Tuesday, the

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Speaker 1: twenty fifth of February twenty twenty five. Remember to hit

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Speaker 1: follow on the podcast, and if five minutes just isn't

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Speaker 1: long enough for you, you can find our longer daily

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Speaker 1: show called Fear and Greed wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson and that was the fast five business

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Speaker 1: news by Fear and Greed. Have a great day.