Latest / What the Flux / Westpac cuts 5% of its workforce | Mayne Pharma's big headache | Bitcoin's major milestone

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Westpac cuts 5% of its workforce | Mayne Pharma's big headache | Bitcoin's major milestone · What the Flux

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is what the Flux. I'm Brett, I'm justin and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: it's Friday, the twenty third of a Josey Boy.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Klina is gearing up to go public and its CEO
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: just announced four straight quarters of peril profit. Except it
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: wasn't the real CEO delivering the news.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Was his AI clone. Yep.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Klana's trying to sell itself as an AI first company now,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: but Juzy Boy, no matter how a lifelike voice slapping
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: AI on a buy now polator business doesn't make it
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  Speaker 1: the weekend on a high, fifty bucks in your pocket,
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  Speaker 1: our weekly game Quick Sticks. All you've got to do
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  Speaker 1: is turn your notifications on in the Flux app. And
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• 0:44
  Speaker 1: sure to download the app and turn your notifications on today.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Three fantastic stories today, Juzzi Boy, let's do it for
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  Speaker 2: our first West PAX new CEO is cutting five percent
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  Speaker 2: of its workforce to reduce costs after disappointing investors with
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  Speaker 2: first half year results.
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  Speaker 1: Corporate makeoverseason at the Bank b Man. So what is
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  Speaker 1: the story?
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  Speaker 2: Well, Westpac was founded in eighteen seventeen and is the
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  Speaker 2: third largest of Australia's big four banks.
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  Speaker 1: And despite different brand names, Westpac also owns Bank of
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  Speaker 1: Melbourne's and George Bank and Bank SA.
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  Speaker 2: So together Westpac supports close to thirteen million customers.
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  Speaker 1: Of bed But despite its size, b Man it was
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  Speaker 1: the slowest kid in the banking class when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to costs. For a number of years, Westpack has had
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  Speaker 1: the highest cost ratio among the four major banks. In
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  Speaker 1: other words, Westpac needs to spend more in order to
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  Speaker 1: earn the same amount of revenue as other banks.
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  Speaker 2: So Josey Boy, Westpac's new CEO, has announced plans to
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  Speaker 2: cut another five percent of the workforce, which is about
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  Speaker 2: seventeen hundred jobs across the.
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  Speaker 1: Bank and be Man. That is in addition to the
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  Speaker 1: over nine hundred jobs that were already cut last year.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, it's the biggest redundancy Westpac has seen in the
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  Speaker 2: last decade.
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  Speaker 1: Or as Westpac likes to call it, a business simplification
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  Speaker 1: program with the chirpy name unite so inspiring. So now
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  Speaker 1: b Man the new CEO, Anthony Mila, is putting his
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  Speaker 1: foot on the gas to deliver the cost savings he
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  Speaker 1: promised investors. So what is the key learning here?
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  Speaker 2: When a new CEO steps in, big big changes usually
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  Speaker 2: are not far behind. A fresh leader brings their own vision,
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  Speaker 2: so that often means reshaping the business to fit the
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  Speaker 2: new strategy, and when it's a public listed company, the
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  Speaker 2: pressure is dialed up to one hundred in this is
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  Speaker 2: what I.
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  Speaker 1: See action, not just talk. So new CEOs tend to
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  Speaker 1: move pretty fast, changing the EXAC team, shifting priorities, or
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  Speaker 1: in Westpac's case, cutting costs through redundancy. Yeah, be man,
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  Speaker 1: and we've seen this happen before.
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  Speaker 2: Back in twenty twenty three, Quantus swapped out their CEO
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  Speaker 2: after coppying a ton of heat from customers and investors.
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  Speaker 1: Yep, and then new CEO made some pretty big changes
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  Speaker 1: to the EXAC team and reset the business direction to
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  Speaker 1: recover from that lost trust.
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  Speaker 2: Since then, profits have bounced back to better than pre
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  Speaker 2: pandemic levels and it's invested in extra eighty million customer service.
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  Speaker 1: So be man. Only time will tell whether these are
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  Speaker 1: the last big cuts at Westpac or a sign of
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  Speaker 1: ongoing cuts to come for our second story.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Main Farmer shares tumble thirty percent after its potential buyer
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  Speaker 2: threatened to walk away from its six hundred and seventy
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  Speaker 2: two million dollar takeover bed.
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  Speaker 1: You will walk.
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  Speaker 2: What is happening here to Maine Farmer Group is the
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  Speaker 2: asxisted company was founded way back in eighteen eighty six,
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  Speaker 2: mind you, as a parcel delivery service, but.
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  Speaker 1: The man in the early nineteen nineties, Maine was found
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  Speaker 1: to be part of a price fixing cartel, so it
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  Speaker 1: sold its transport interests.
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  Speaker 2: And diversified into healthcare along the journey, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: natural sort of pivot.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. They now sales birth control and menopause and dermatology
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  Speaker 1: products in Australia and the US. But it hasn't all
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  Speaker 1: been smooth sailing, juzzy boy. It suffered a net loss
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  Speaker 1: of nearly one hundred and seventy million bucks in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty four, but the man back. In February this year,
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  Speaker 1: the US pharmaceutical company named Cossette Center takeover bid Main's
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  Speaker 1: way the six hundred and seventy two million bucks.
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  Speaker 2: Which was a thirty seven percent premium to Maine's closing
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  Speaker 2: price before this offer fastworld to now, and Cossette is
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  Speaker 2: trying to walk away from the deal, claiming there's been
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  Speaker 2: a material adverse change since their offer.
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  Speaker 1: Oh and the market didn't take that one. Well.
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  Speaker 2: Next minute, Main share price thirty percent. So what is
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  Speaker 2: the key learning here? A material adverse change gives a
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  Speaker 2: buyer a potential route to either exit or renegotiate terms
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  Speaker 2: of a deal. If something negative happens between the time
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  Speaker 2: when the offer is made and the deal closing.
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  Speaker 1: It's basically a legal escape.
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  Speaker 2: Hatchink, a major profit downgrade, a scandal, a regulatory issue,
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  Speaker 2: and a man.
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  Speaker 1: In this case, Cossette claims that there was a material
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  Speaker 1: change in Main's financial position.
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  Speaker 2: And also that Maine had made false and misleading claims
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  Speaker 2: to the US Food and Drug Administration about its contraception pill.
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  Speaker 1: But here's the catch. Courts don't take these changes very
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  Speaker 1: lightly now.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, most material adverse change clause disputes end up
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  Speaker 2: favoring the seller.
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  Speaker 1: Because buyers need to prove the change is substantial and
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  Speaker 1: long lasting and not just a short term blit.
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  Speaker 2: So now, instead of riding off into the merger sunset,
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  Speaker 2: Maine and Cossette are lawyering up and preparing.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: For a legal showdown. For our third and final story,
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  Speaker 1: bitcoin has hidden all time high after breaking through the
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and ten thousand US dollar barrier, and it's
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  Speaker 1: now with more than Google and Amazon. Not bad for
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: a made up currency with no ceo and no boards.
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  Speaker 1: Don't tell me more, Joz boy So we know that
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  Speaker 1: bitcoin was created by the man and still the myth
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: SITUTIONI nakamodu in two thousand and eight. At first, b
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  Speaker 1: Man it was just quirky coders and libertarians getting on board.
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  Speaker 1: But crypto has become mainstream.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, number of Australians that hold some form of
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: crypto is around twenty percent according to Fintech Australia.
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  Speaker 1: That means it's more mainstream than oace milk in Australia.
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  Speaker 2: And over the past fifteen years it's gone through a
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: number of incredibly volatile cycles.
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  Speaker 1: And Jazi Boyd, this happened once again. Yeah. In April
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  Speaker 1: this year, the price of bitcoin fell to seventy four
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  Speaker 1: thousand US dollars after Trump's tariff tantrum. But bitcoin has
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: been rapidly climbing up actually forty three percent since then.
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  Speaker 1: And now Bitcoin's hit it's all time high of one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and ten thousand US dollars.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: The driver has been spot bitcoin ETFs in the US.
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  Speaker 1: Institutions are looking for ways to get exposure to bitcoin
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: without actually owning bitcoin. So what's the key learning here? Then?
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: It took fifteen years, but bitcoin has become institution accepted
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and maybe even friendly. Well.
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  Speaker 2: In jan twenty twenty four, the US Secure it is
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: an Exchange Commission the SEC, they approved their first ever
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  Speaker 2: spot bitcoin ETF.
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  Speaker 1: And that means large institutions can get exposure to bitcoin
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  Speaker 1: via these etf and these ETFs track the real price
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  Speaker 1: of bitcoin. Jazy boy. Why do these ETFs make such
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: a big impact though, Because holding crypto directly is a
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  Speaker 1: nightmare for large institutions. There's the risk of losing the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: password aka the private key. There's also a heap of
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: regulatory red tape.
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  Speaker 2: So these ETFs give large institutions the exposure without the headache.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Get this, bee man. Since the beginning of the year,
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  Speaker 1: the number of bitcoin held by public companies has grown
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  Speaker 1: thirty one percent to about three hundred and forty nine billion.
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  Speaker 2: US dollars and that comprises fifteen percent of the total
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  Speaker 2: bitcoin supply.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: And this has been a big driver pushing bitcoin prices.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Who record heights Fox Sami. If you want to test
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: your knowledge or just prove that you're the fastest and
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: smartest person in the Flux family, make sure you are
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: ready on your phone to win quick sticks to make
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: sure to download the Flux app and be ready to win.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Monday.