Latest / What the Flux / Virtual Gaming World's cash splash | Robinhood's crypto acquisition | Lululemon stretches its profit
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: This is what the flucks.
- 0:06Speaker 2: I'm justin and I'm harsh Deep and it's Monday, the
- 0:09Speaker 2: tenth of June Achi.
- 0:10Speaker 1: The merge between the physical and the digital world is
- 0:12Speaker 1: getting more real every single day. Oh yeah, get this.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Ikia is opening a digital store on Robelosts. Okay, they're
- 0:19Speaker 1: actually looking for staff and they're actually looking to pay
- 0:22Speaker 1: those stuff sixteen bucks an hour. Wow, sitting on your
- 0:25Speaker 1: computer not fair head, Fluxpam.
- 0:27Speaker 2: Have you ever wondered how much super you should have
- 0:29Speaker 2: your age? Are you ahead where the average Australian is
- 0:32Speaker 2: or behind? Having a benchmark to compare your super can
- 0:35Speaker 2: give you a signal of your financial health and we've
- 0:37Speaker 2: got it covered in the Flux app, so make sure
- 0:39Speaker 2: to check it out.
- 0:40Speaker 1: Great article. HD three informative stories Today, let's get into
- 0:44Speaker 1: it for our first virtual gaming world. The Australian social
- 0:48Speaker 1: gaming giant has delivered a massive three hundred and sixty
- 0:51Speaker 1: million dollar dividend to investors in it's third mega payout
- 0:54Speaker 1: for the financial year.
- 0:56Speaker 2: The biggest company that you've never heard of tell me more.
- 0:59Speaker 1: Literally, Virtual Gaming Old is an absolutely monstrous estliing company,
- 1:03Speaker 1: but it keeps pretty low key.
- 1:04Speaker 2: It was founded back in twenty ten with its online
- 1:07Speaker 2: poker machines and casino games.
- 1:09Speaker 1: It's the owner of companies Chumber Casino and Lucky Land Slots,
- 1:12Speaker 1: which you may or may not have heard of Andazz.
- 1:15Speaker 2: VGW has kept a low profile for a good reason.
- 1:18Speaker 2: It operates in the gray zone of sweet Steaks.
- 1:20Speaker 1: That effectively allows them to run gambling operations in the
- 1:23Speaker 1: US when casinos are banned in many states.
- 1:26Speaker 2: Get this. By September twenty twenty two, VGW was the
- 1:29Speaker 2: sixth biggest private company in the whole of Australia.
- 1:32Speaker 1: It generated more than two point eight billion dollars in
- 1:34Speaker 1: revenue in the six months ending December last year. And
- 1:37Speaker 1: now VGW has dishouted dividend worth around three hundred and
- 1:40Speaker 1: sixty million dollars to a shareholder.
- 1:42Speaker 2: And that's nearly nine hundred million dollars in dividends just
- 1:45Speaker 2: for the last financial year.
- 1:46Speaker 1: And while vgw's investors would be pretty happy with those
- 1:49Speaker 1: dividend returns, the real payday will happen when VGW is
- 1:53Speaker 1: sold all goes public.
- 1:54Speaker 2: But there's a real liquidity risk for those investors.
- 1:57Speaker 1: True, So what is the key learning here?
- 1:59Speaker 2: Private market and is a complex dance of higher risk
- 2:02Speaker 2: but also high reward and a she.
- 2:04Speaker 1: This is particularly relevant for VGW, which faces a significant
- 2:08Speaker 1: liquidity risk for investors.
- 2:09Speaker 2: You see Jazz. Traditional liquidity pathways are kind of limited
- 2:13Speaker 2: for VGW and Jazz. Why can't VGW just list on
- 2:16Speaker 2: the public stock exchange.
- 2:17Speaker 1: Well, it's previously tried to list on the ASX and
- 2:20Speaker 1: it was rejected because the ASEX wasn't clear on the
- 2:23Speaker 1: legality of vgw's operations.
- 2:25Speaker 2: And what about another company buying VGW.
- 2:27Speaker 1: Well, it's worth more than four billion dollars, so it
- 2:30Speaker 1: needs to be a pretty big company willing to take
- 2:32Speaker 1: on a regulatory risk.
- 2:34Speaker 2: So right now, VGW investors are just happy to take
- 2:37Speaker 2: their dividends, but.
- 2:37Speaker 1: They've got to be wondering what their long term options
- 2:40Speaker 1: really are.
- 2:41Speaker 2: For our second story, robin Hood, the stock trading app,
- 2:44Speaker 2: has announced a two hundred million US dollar acquisition of
- 2:48Speaker 2: cryptocurrency exchange bitstamp.
- 2:50Speaker 1: Robin Hood's getting deeper into the crypto action. Very interesting,
- 2:53Speaker 1: So tell me what's going on here.
- 2:54Speaker 2: Well, Jazz. Robinhood is a US based financial services company
- 2:58Speaker 2: that's been around since twenty thirteen.
- 3:00Speaker 1: It's most well known for its app, which allows users
- 3:02Speaker 1: to trade stocks and ETFs and even some cryptocurrencies, mainly
- 3:05Speaker 1: without brokerage fees.
- 3:06Speaker 2: And now robin Hood has just announced that it will
- 3:09Speaker 2: be acquiring cryptocurrency exchange a bitstamp for two hundred million
- 3:13Speaker 2: US dollars.
- 3:14Speaker 1: And a bitstamp isn't just any old exchange, hg. It's the
- 3:17Speaker 1: world's oldest crypto exchange, been around since twenty eleven.
- 3:20Speaker 2: It's now the sixteenth largest crypto exchange actually based on
- 3:23Speaker 2: trading volume, and offers access to over eighty five different cryptocurrencies.
- 3:27Speaker 1: But that is not what makes it steel super lucrative
- 3:30Speaker 1: for robin Hood.
- 3:31Speaker 2: Okay, tell me more.
- 3:32Speaker 1: Well, bitstam has fifty active licenses worldwide, meaning it's done
- 3:36Speaker 1: the hard yards to meet regulatory standards across the world.
- 3:39Speaker 2: No wonder robin Hood's shelled out the cash to buy this.
- 3:41Speaker 1: So what is the key learning?
- 3:43Speaker 2: Why reinvent the wheel when you can just acquire itch.
- 3:46Speaker 1: When companies want to expand their operations, either into a
- 3:49Speaker 1: new area or location, they often need to meet regulatory
- 3:53Speaker 1: requirements first.
- 3:54Speaker 2: Planning to open a new store location got to get
- 3:56Speaker 2: a permit.
- 3:57Speaker 1: Expanding overseas into a new country, particularly in a regulated industry,
- 4:00Speaker 1: you got to get their approval.
- 4:01Speaker 2: Obtaining the licenses and regulatory approvals can be extremely time
- 4:05Speaker 2: consuming and expensive for companies, but.
- 4:07Speaker 1: There's a shortcut acquiring a company that already has those licenses.
- 4:11Speaker 2: You see Jazz. Not only is Robinhood buying Bitstamp, but
- 4:14Speaker 2: it's also buying access to new markets.
- 4:16Speaker 1: And bypassing the licensing process.
- 4:18Speaker 2: So if Robinhood's acquisition gets approved by competition watchdogs, we
- 4:22Speaker 2: could be seeing it dominate the crypto space rapidly.
- 4:25Speaker 1: For our third and final story, Lululemon has seen a
- 4:28Speaker 1: big jump in a share price after it raised its
- 4:30Speaker 1: profit forecast and announced a one billion US dollar share
- 4:34Speaker 1: buy bout.
- 4:34Speaker 2: Investors got to love those shared by bats, tell.
- 4:36Speaker 1: Me more so. Lululemon Athletica, as it's formerly known, is
- 4:40Speaker 1: the yoga and active word company founded back in nineteen
- 4:43Speaker 1: ninety eight.
- 4:43Speaker 2: And wilet started with yoga clothing, it's effectively created the
- 4:46Speaker 2: athleisure category.
- 4:48Speaker 1: We're talking legging, shorts, jackets, bags, yoga mats. They got
- 4:51Speaker 1: it all and just.
- 4:52Speaker 2: Many clothing companies have struggled with slow sales over the
- 4:54Speaker 2: past twelve months, but not Lululemon.
- 4:57Speaker 1: In fact, its first quarter, revenue in the US was
- 4:59Speaker 1: pretty much flight in a plank position, but it's international
- 5:02Speaker 1: sales jumped twenty five percent.
- 5:04Speaker 2: Not only were these sales up, but they were also
- 5:06Speaker 2: selling more profitable items.
- 5:08Speaker 1: And if that wasn't ENOUGHHD Lululemon has also announced that
- 5:11Speaker 1: increased their share by Back program by one billion US dollars.
- 5:14Speaker 2: Investors like the sound of that, pushing lula Lemon's shares
- 5:17Speaker 2: higher than a box jump berbie aka eleven percent.
- 5:20Speaker 1: Very good. So what is the key learning here?
- 5:22Speaker 2: When you fully saturated one market, it's time to move
- 5:25Speaker 2: on to another HG.
- 5:27Speaker 1: Lululemon's at leisure popularity peaked in the US during the COVID.
- 5:30Speaker 2: Years, but since then, Lululemon's share price and financial results
- 5:34Speaker 2: have been in downward dog position.
- 5:35Speaker 1: This year, its share price has dropped more than thirty
- 5:38Speaker 1: six percent since the beginning of twenty twenty four, and it's.
- 5:40Speaker 2: Been seeing slow growth, particularly in the US market.
- 5:43Speaker 1: But by detecting these trends early, you can help a
- 5:46Speaker 1: company respond before these trends become fully entrenched.
- 5:49Speaker 2: Does. The women's ath leisure space has become extremely crowded
- 5:53Speaker 2: with popular brands like a Loo, Yoga and fabletics.
- 5:55Speaker 1: So Lululemon has diversified into men's clothing and corporate clothing.
- 6:00Speaker 2: As well as pushing as ran into global markets.
- 6:02Speaker 1: In fact, overseas revenue now accounts for around twenty one
- 6:05Speaker 1: percent of Lululemon's revenue, but they see it reaching fifty
- 6:08Speaker 1: percent in the long term and it's these.
- 6:10Speaker 2: New growth channels that will help grow the Lululemon brand
- 6:13Speaker 2: into the future.
- 6:14Speaker 1: It's tough to say the word Luther Lemon fluxam. Most
- 6:16Speaker 1: people don't give their superannuation much thought. But if you're
- 6:19Speaker 1: deciding to come around and try to understand what a
- 6:21Speaker 1: benchmark could look like in terms of your age and
- 6:23Speaker 1: your super we've got it covered in the Flux app,
- 6:26Speaker 1: so make sure to check it out. With HG's latest article,
- 6:28Speaker 1: it's a cracker.
- 6:29Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Wednesday.