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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed Summer series. I'm Michael Thompson,

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Speaker 1: and good morning, Sean Aylmer. Morning Michael, and good morning

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Speaker 1: to you. Adam Lang.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Michael.

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Speaker 1: Today we are looking back at of twenty twenty five

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Speaker 1: the best local corporate stories and there are a few

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Speaker 1: to choose from, and I have chosen the biggest, the

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Speaker 1: biggest company specifically at the demise in the share price

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Speaker 1: of Commonwealth Bank and also the demise and the share

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Speaker 1: price of CSL. There's a vastly different reasons for these

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Speaker 1: two companies Commonwealth Bank, so I'm just jumping straight into

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Speaker 1: this today. I've started up going first. Comwealth Bank has

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Speaker 1: been a victim of its own success. Really, it's been

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Speaker 1: trading at a hefty premium to the other bank's price

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Speaker 1: for perfection. For much of this year, it's been the

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Speaker 1: most expensive bank in the world. I think that's a

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Speaker 1: stat that we've referred to many, many times. It means

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Speaker 1: even solid numbers on home lending and deposits and margins

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Speaker 1: haven't been enough to keep the share at those levels.

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Speaker 1: Analysts have been calling this out for a long time,

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Speaker 1: saying CBA is so so expensive and we're predicting it

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Speaker 1: to dip, and at last they were right. CSL's weakness

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Speaker 1: more fundamental bit of trouble, A lot of trouble in

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Speaker 1: the US, in particular with kind of things like higher

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Speaker 1: plasma collection costs and a lot of ongoing margin pressure,

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Speaker 1: Slower than hope to recovery across certain parts of the business.

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Speaker 1: There were some guidance downgrades. Investors' confidence was shaken significantly.

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Speaker 1: But these are two of the biggest companies on the ASX.

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Speaker 1: Commonwealth Bank is the biggest, and CSL held that mantle

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Speaker 1: about five years ago. This has been an extraordinary year

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Speaker 1: for these two behemoths. I just think it's a It

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Speaker 1: is quite a remarkable local corporate story.

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Speaker 3: Sure, I agree, I agree. My offering for this category

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Speaker 3: is corporate governance again Wise Tech Global Richard White, he

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Speaker 3: was supposed to be moved on while he became executive

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Speaker 3: chair earlier in the year of that company. He founded

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Speaker 3: the company, of course, and all corporate governments seemed to

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Speaker 3: have gone out the window on that one. Mineral Resources

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Speaker 3: Chris Ellison, he's supposed to be stepping down in April. Well,

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Speaker 3: that's not going to happen now they've changed their minds

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Speaker 3: on that am Z issued a record fat was issued

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Speaker 3: a record fine after admitting to multiple forms of misconduct

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Speaker 3: around bond trading. Been a bit of a hurry year

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Speaker 3: for a z ed. When it comes to corporate governance,

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Speaker 3: there was a collapse of Shield and Guardian master trusts

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Speaker 3: that put platforms under pressure. There's a bunch of those platforms,

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Speaker 3: one called Diversa, for example, is being sued by ASSEK.

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Speaker 3: At the moment, Mcquarie has a platform. It ended up

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Speaker 3: paying out investors more than three hundred million dollars and

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Speaker 3: took a much closer look at who was on its platform.

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Speaker 3: Big issue there. Mcquarie's also under the gun relegations of

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Speaker 3: misreporting of short selling trades ax Its performance is under scrutiny,

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Speaker 3: with the Reserve Bank and ase the corporate regulator now

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Speaker 3: undertaking inquiries into it. The ASEX just can't seem to

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Speaker 3: put a foot right. At the moment, there was a

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Speaker 3: bunch of greenwashing fines against super funds. You would think

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Speaker 3: that corporate Australia by now would understand that really you've

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Speaker 3: got to do the right thing. Well apparently not. Unfortunately.

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Speaker 3: Once again, the big local corporate story for mine for

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty five corporate governance.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's quite the shopping list. That's extraordinary.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they're both awesome, So let me propose one more.

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Speaker 2: While banks and healthcare wobbled, Australian mining surged back into

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Speaker 2: focus in twenty twenty five, lead by the big three miners,

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Speaker 2: Gold and Critical Minerals. Gold was obviously the headline act,

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Speaker 2: with prices smashing through US forty two hundred ounce, driving

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Speaker 2: record profits and renewed investment into local producers. Northern Star Evolution, Newmont,

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Speaker 2: Genesis Persius dominated the performance tables and powered gold to

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Speaker 2: become the best performing sector on the ASX. Iron Ore

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Speaker 2: proved very resilient, perhaps more than COF this year, with BHP,

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Speaker 2: Rio Tinto and ford es Q maintaining very strong cash

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Speaker 2: flows despite softer Chinese demand. Critical minerals have moved from

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Speaker 2: niche to national priority with Pilgrim Minerals Alcome Linetown Resources Linus,

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Speaker 2: where it's drawn into global supply chain politics, government backed projects,

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Speaker 2: defense side supply chains demanded local inputs, and capital followed

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Speaker 2: security of supply over short term price cycles. In a

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Speaker 2: year of anxiety around capital allocation, Mining's big three, Gold

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Speaker 2: and Critical minerals all reminded investors why Australia remains a

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Speaker 2: resource of superpower with real geopolitical leverage the lucky country.

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Speaker 1: Oh, Sean, I think you are best placed to decide

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Speaker 1: this one as a as a business journalist of many,

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Speaker 1: many decades that you have just put you watched closely

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Speaker 1: for the big local corporate store. Sorry, so what was it?

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Speaker 3: Which one was the I think the biggest has to

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Speaker 3: be the rise of mining companies. Really, I mean they're back, Adam,

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Speaker 3: is your last comment about you know why Australia remains

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Speaker 3: a resource of superpower with real JEO political leverage. So true.

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Speaker 3: But then number two I think has to be CBO

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Speaker 3: and at CSL simply be there is the big, big companies,

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Speaker 3: so many shareholders out there. So gold to Adam ondas

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Speaker 3: silver to Michael on CBAZL and a very meritorious bronze

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Speaker 3: something on corporate governance. But there's so much corporate governance.

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Speaker 3: It's again and again and again, so we're all going

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Speaker 3: to a bit tired of. It's a bit like Donald Trump,

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Speaker 3: isn't it.

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Speaker 2: But it's awesome.

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Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Sean, Thanks Michael, Thanks Adam, Thank.

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Speaker 2: You Adam Thank you Michael, Thank you Sean.

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Speaker 1: Don't forget to follow on the podcast. New episodes every

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Speaker 1: day during our summer series and regular shows are back

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Speaker 1: from January twelve. I'm Michael Thompson and this is Fear

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Speaker 1: and Great