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Speaker 1: Now, Jeremy Hutton Milford Asset Management is with me right now, Hey, Jeremy,

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Speaker 1: good evening hither Now, what did you make of the

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Speaker 1: COMMUS Commission clearing Contact Energy's acquisition of Manowa Energy.

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Speaker 2: It was somewhat surprising news this morning with the COMMICS

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Speaker 2: Commission approving their acquisition ahead of schedule. So for reference,

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Speaker 2: Contact Energy, they're one of the big four electricity gent

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Speaker 2: tailors and they applied last year to acquire Manoa, who

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Speaker 2: are the fifth largest player in the generation market. So

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Speaker 2: there is a key difference between generation and the retail market. Now,

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Speaker 2: a large generator el Gent Taylor acquiring a smaller player

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Speaker 2: on the surface could make people a little bit nervous

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Speaker 2: from a competition perspective. But the COMMAS Commission went away,

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Speaker 2: they did their analysis and review and they said today

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Speaker 2: that they were satisfied that the acquisition is unlikely to

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Speaker 2: lessen competition in the retail market and then also unlikely

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Speaker 2: to push up electricity prices for consumers.

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Speaker 1: So that would imply that increased regulation for the electricity

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Speaker 1: sectors low, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I'd say unlikely. I mean the pressure is always going

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Speaker 2: to be on for more regulation, and the commist Commission

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Speaker 2: did point out in its release that they still have

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Speaker 2: some concerns about lack of competition in the market, and

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Speaker 2: there are still a number of reviews underway which the

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Speaker 2: Commist Commission is a part of. But under the law

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Speaker 2: and under competition law, if the Commission did their analysis

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Speaker 2: and they believed that the deal wouldn't reduce competition, then

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Speaker 2: they really have no option but to approve the transaction. Now,

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Speaker 2: what I will say is that politicians, they're always going

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Speaker 2: to have a view on this, and we are heading

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Speaker 2: into an election next year and the sector does become

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Speaker 2: very political, So I do expect a lot more commentary

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Speaker 2: on this competition in the run up to the election

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Speaker 2: next year.

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Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk about main fright now. Main freights had

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Speaker 1: a very start, a strong start to the main mouth

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Speaker 1: what's going on.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the main freight's year price that had been

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Speaker 2: hit really hard on fares of lower earnings expectations, and

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Speaker 2: that's primarily driven from reduced global growth and effectively the

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Speaker 2: Trump tariff turmoil. Now, main Freight they released a trading

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Speaker 2: update on Friday and it was a pretty emphatic rebuttal

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Speaker 2: of some of these market expectations of a downgrade. Currently,

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Speaker 2: they're only seeing impacts in their Transpacific freight lane, so

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Speaker 2: that's the China to US freight lane that we're very

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Speaker 2: familiar with. In the US division as well, now there's

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Speaker 2: quite a small part of main Freight's earning, so it

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Speaker 2: doesn't move the dial too much. But most importantly their

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Speaker 2: Crown Duel divisions, which is Australia and New Zealand, they're

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Speaker 2: not seeing any impact at the moment, and that was

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Speaker 2: quite surprising to the market. It took it quite positively

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Speaker 2: and the share price was up thirteen percent. So if

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Speaker 2: that contagion doesn't come down to the side of the

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Speaker 2: world so much and keeps limited to the US, then

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Speaker 2: the main Freight share price should continue to be very strong.

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Speaker 1: And then what about Briscoes. They had a trading update today.

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Speaker 1: I mean, they had been doing really well, but then

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Speaker 1: they've taken a has and Q one have they?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one of widely perceived is one of New zealand

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Speaker 2: leading retailers, and they reported their start of the year

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Speaker 2: sales numbers and you know, it just continued to highlight

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Speaker 2: to me how tough the retail market still live in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand. And then just you know, some of these

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Speaker 2: green shoots that we've been expecting, you know, continuing to

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Speaker 2: get pushed out, mainly in their homewere division. You know,

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Speaker 2: they saw their sales down almost five percent versus last year.

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Speaker 2: But most importantly they just had some confidence in returning

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Speaker 2: or stronger profits in the second half of this year

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Speaker 2: and their forward guidance, and I think a lot of

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Speaker 2: other retailers in New Zealand will be holding out hope

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Speaker 2: for that as well.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, Jeremy, thanks as always, this really good stork to you.

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Speaker 1: That's Jeremy Hutton, Milford Accid Management. For more from Hither

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Speaker 1: Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be

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