Harvey Norman Cautious Outlook, Macarthur Agrees to Peabody Bid

Marcus Jacob
30 Aug, 2011
New York City

The Australian benchmark index was nearly unchanged but retained a positive bias. Macarthur Coal agreed to $16 a share that valued the company at A$4.8 billion. Harvey Norman declined on the cautious outlook.

[R]4:30 PM Sydney – The Australian benchmark index was nearly unchanged but retained a positive bias. Macarthur Coal agreed to $16 a share that valued the company at A$4.8 billion. Harvey Norman declined on the cautious outlook.[/R]

The ASX 200 index rose 5.90 or 0.14% to 4,269.2 and All Ordinaries index added 7.7 or 0.2% to 4,341.4.

The Australian dollar closed down 0.02% to US$1.065 and gold price decreased $20.68 to US$1,797.20.

In trading, turnover increased to 2.54 billion shares and value declined to $5.8 billion with 595 stocks rising, 432 declining and 366 unchanged.

Macarthur Coal Agreed to Revised Bid

Macarthur Coal agreed to a revised takeover offer from Peabody Energy and Arcelor Mittal that valued the company at $4.9 billion or $16 a share. The joint venture PEAMCoal raised its offer to $16 from $15.50 a share.

The company earlier rejected the $16 a share because it was prevented from looking for another buyer and after one month of shopping it failed to find a bidder and agreed to the sweetened offer.

ArcelorMittal controls 16% of the pulverized coal miner and the bidders are looking to acquire at least 50.1% of the company.

The mid-sized coal miner has been pursued by Peabody and ArcelorMittal for nearly a year.

Harvey Norman Cautious Outlook

Harvey Norman, the retail chain of electronics and furniture, reported 9% increase in net profit of $252.2 million compared to $231.4 million a year ago.

Revenues increased to $2.7 billion from $2.45 billion after the company also cited falling prices of white goods and electronics like televisions.

The company also agreed that its recent purchase of Clive Peeters chain for $55 million was “a dud buy.”

Stock Movers

QR National added 14 cents to $3.34 and a day ago the recently privatized rail road operator reported net profit before interest and taxes of $367 million, below its guidance range between $380 million and $410 million.

BHP Billiton Ltd increased 20 cents to $39.35 and Rio Tinto added $1.80 to $71.79. Newcrest Mining Ltd added 58 cents to $40.07.

Leighton Holdings fell 27 cents or 1.3% to $20.30 and Lend Lease Group added 7 cents to $8.25.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia decreased 3 cents to $47.93 and National Australian Bank added 22 cents to $23.66. ANZ decreased 3 cents to $20.18. Westpac Banking Corp gained 37 cents to $20.42.

Fairfax Media Ltd decreased 0.5 cent to 83 cents.

Qantas closed unchanged at $1.58 and Virgin Blue Holdings gained 1.5 cents to 29.50 cents.

Woolworths Limited decreased $0.26 to $25.15 and Harvey Norman fell 3 cents to $2 after the retailer issued a cautious outlook for the current year.