Latest news with #MacquarieAustralia
The Age
24-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
VRC honchos off and racing – but not for Flemington
CBD's spies wandered into the VRC committee room on Saturday to find it suspiciously empty. We were told all committee members – bar vice chairman Michael Ramsden – had flown to the racing mecca of Royal Ascot for its big carnival. While the VRC stumped up for flights for chairman Neil Wilson and chief executive Kylie Rogers, who were 'invited by Royal Ascot and attended on official duties', an insider told CBD that the other directors had paid their own way. The VRC and Royal Ascot have reciprocal membership rights. The case can be made for promoting Melbourne Cup Week among the English racing elite and even luring some of their top-quality horses Down Under for the coming spring, but there is also a question of optics for an organisation with $70 million in debt and four years of losses. The club, which doesn't expect to return to profit until next year, spent $130 million on a new stand at Flemington before COVID and then shed 90 per cent of its revenue during the pandemic. (The stand looks like a cruise ship, for what it's worth). Glamorous international trips aside, board members will have to refine their drinking tastes. Penfolds has ended its four-year partnership with the racing club and Grange is off the menu. The VRC has signed De Bortoli Wines in its place. The Victoria Racing Club board was in good company at Royal Ascot 2025. It was opened by King Charles and Queen Camilla and was also graced by Gillon McLachlan, the king of Melbourne while leading the AFL, and now head of gambling business Tabcorp. The AFL's executive manager for government and stakeholder relations, Jude Donnelly, was also there for the first day of one of the world's most prestigious racing carnivals. Wearing a top hat, McLachlan told UK media that Royal Ascot was the pinnacle. 'There's a lot of Australians in town. I seem to have met hundreds of them,' he said. While on McLachlan, the former AFL top dog has lost his top billing. He was relegated to the graveyard 4pm shift at the recent Macquarie Australia conference, leaving him to compete for attention with .
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Australia's Westpac says 'worst is behind us', finance demand for M&A stronger
By Scott Murdoch and Christine Chen SYDNEY (Reuters) -The CEO of Australia's second-largest home lender Westpac said on Tuesday the nation's economy was showing signs of recovery with reduced mortgage stress and rising demand for corporate buyout activity. Chief Executive Anthony Miller said Westpac had seen an improvement in mortgage stress levels, highlighted by fewer loans that were more than 90 days behind in repayments. At the same time, demand for mergers and acquisition financing had picked up. "The ongoing reduction in stress levels in the business bank is quite encouraging and so that only reinforces in my mind that the worst is behind us," Miller told the Macquarie Australia conference in Sydney. "The pipeline of activity that we see in business bank is very pleasing. That is still to be executed. But there is a lot of interest and activity in the pipeline and growth in the last half, and that is expected to continue." Corporate buyout activity in Australia was worth $20.54 billion in the first quarter of 2025, according to LSEG data, down 13.7% on the same time last year. But dealmakers hope interest rate cuts would help lift activity in the second quarter. "Some of the M&A pipeline that we've been invited to participate in is quite a bit larger than we thought we'd see at this point of the environment we are in," he said. Australia's central bank cut interest rates by 25 basis points in February to 4.1% in the first reduction in four years, and markets expect another rate cut on May 20, following a decline in first-quarter core inflation to a three-year low. Westpac on Monday reported a 1% slip in first half net profit to A$3.32 billion ($2.14 billion) and a net interest margin contraction. The results showed mortgage delinquencies and impairment charges were low, with repayments on home loans in Australia more than 90 days late as a proportion of total loans falling to 0.86% as of the end of March from 1.12% six months earlier. ($1 = 1.5506 Australian dollars) Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Australia's Westpac says 'worst is behind us', finance demand for M&A stronger
SYDNEY (Reuters) - The CEO of Australia's second-largest mortgage lender Westpac said on Tuesday that the economy was showing signs of recovery and financing demand for M&A was stronger. "All the data in terms of 90-day plus stress levels, across the consumer division, across the business bank, just indicating that the worst is behind us," Anthony Miller said at the Macquarie Australia conference. He added the financing demand pipeline for mergers and acquisitions was "larger than we thought we'd see". Sign in to access your portfolio
