Latest / What the Flux / Qantas' $120 million turbulence | Big 4 banks fight fossil fuels | Honda & Nissan = match made in heaven

Transcript

Qantas' $120 million turbulence | Big 4 banks fight fossil fuels | Honda & Nissan = match made in heaven · What the Flux

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is what the flux.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I'm Brettan, I'm justin and it's last Friday, the twentieth
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: of December, doyboy.
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  Speaker 1: Each year, Treasury releases a juicy report that highlights how
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: many Aussies are taking advantage of tax benefits.
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  Speaker 2: Juicy.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Get this, Nearly half of all Australian landlords have negatively
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: geared their properties. All in all, the negative gearing benefit
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: will cost the government six billion dollars in lost tax.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Flux ma'am. It has been a huge twenty twenty four
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  Speaker 2: and we've loved being in your ears each and every
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: week with the latest business news stories. We cracked over
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  Speaker 2: one thousand pot episodes, we celebrated millions of downloads. But
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: just to remind us, this is our last pod for
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four and we'll be back fit and firing
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: on January twentieth, twenty twenty five. So if you're enjoying
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: the pod, please give us the greatest of holiday gifts
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: by hitting subscribe and giving us a five star rating
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  Speaker 2: and review.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: We don't really need a review, just a five star
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: rating and the subscribe three truly marvelous stories today, doesy boy?
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Let's do it for our first, Quantus has agreed to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: pay one hundred and twenty million dollars in compensation to
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: eighteen hundred former ground handlers who were illegally sacked.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Surely New CEO could just blame Old Sea over this one.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: What is the story here, well, juzzyboy, Quantas, Australia's national
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  Speaker 1: airline carrier, has been around since nineteen twenty two.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, my friend at Quantus is the third oldest
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  Speaker 2: operating airline in the world behind KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: and I've.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Janker Great Trivia Knowledge two fan favorite now ban.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: During the pandemic, Quantus suffered some serious losses. We're talking
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: more than seven billion dollars. On top of that they
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: profited off ghost flights.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: They faced an a Triple C inquiry and New CEO
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: mass layoffs the ban.
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  Speaker 2: Back in October this year, the Federal court found that
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Quantus had illegally fired eighteen hundred and twenty workers back
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty.
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  Speaker 1: And rather than true redundancies, Quantus had outsourced to these
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: roles to contract it.
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  Speaker 2: So now Quantus has agreed to pay one hundred and
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: twenty million bucks to the Transport Workers Union to pay
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: those affected workers and Juseyboy the Transport Workers Union is
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: calling this the large case of illegal sackings in Australian history.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: That is huge for me. Man Quantus's new CEO, Vaness Hudson.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: She's apologized and now let's move on from all of this.
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  Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here? When a new
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: CEO steps into their role, they inherit the good, they
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: inherit the bad, and of course they're very ugly from
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  Speaker 2: their predecessor.
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  Speaker 1: The good thing for a fresh CEO is that they
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: can apologize for past mistakes without personally owning them.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, these apologies can help the company rebuild investor and
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: customer trusts while distancing themselves from past errors from previous management.
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  Speaker 1: And Vanessa Hudson has leaned hard into this story.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Poor call center service. Sorry about that it was on
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  Speaker 2: previous CEO, Alan Joyce's watch ghost flights.
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  Speaker 1: Deeply regretful, Alan Joyce again and now again the illegal sackings.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Let's settle the case that happened under my predecessor.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: But here's a twistbeed Man. Despite all this turbulence, quantius
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: of share price is at an all time high.
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  Speaker 1: Turns out, investors are loving Vanessa's apology.
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  Speaker 2: Tool for our second story. Australia's Big four banks have
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  Speaker 2: reduced their lending to fossil fuel companies over twenty percent
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  Speaker 2: in the last two years after big pressure from climate activists.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Wow way billions and billions and billions. Jusey boy, tell
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  Speaker 2: me more? Okay, so we know the big four banks
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  Speaker 2: in Australia some of the biggest banks in the whole
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  Speaker 2: wide world. Yep.
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  Speaker 1: They lent to almost everyone, homeowners renovating their kitchens, businesses,
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  Speaker 1: expanding their empires.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, they man between CommBank and ZED, Westpac and NAB.
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  Speaker 2: They lent forty three point four billion dollars to fossil
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  Speaker 2: fuel businesses back in twenty twenty two.
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  Speaker 1: But does boy. Activist groups and investors have been piling
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  Speaker 1: on the pressure to stop lending to fossil fuel companies.
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  Speaker 2: And it seems to be working.
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  Speaker 1: Get this.
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  Speaker 2: The Big four led thirty four billion dollars to fossil
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  Speaker 2: fuel companies in twenty twenty four, or nearly ten billion
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  Speaker 2: dollars less than twenty twenty two.
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  Speaker 1: On top of that, the Big Four is pushing fossil
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  Speaker 1: fuels companies to create climate transition plans if they want
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: to be eligible for future financing, and.
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  Speaker 2: If they don't see legit transition plans by certain dates
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  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five, it means no more lending.
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  Speaker 1: That is very interesting, juzy boy. So what is the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: key learning here?
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  Speaker 2: Thanks are being forced to balance commercial interests with the
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  Speaker 2: need to address climate risks.
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  Speaker 1: On the one hand, banks and all for profit companies
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  Speaker 1: need to focus on maximizing their profit to deliver shareholder value.
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  Speaker 2: But on the other hand, there's an argument they need
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  Speaker 2: to maximize profits ethically, and a number of climate activists
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  Speaker 2: and ESG conscious investors believe that fossil fuel lending it
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  Speaker 2: just ain't right and clearly be Man The pressure has
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  Speaker 2: worked because the Big four have dropped their lending to
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  Speaker 2: fossil fuel companies by twenty two percent.
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  Speaker 1: And the banks aren't the only companies being pressured by investors.
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  Speaker 2: YEP. Remember back in twenty twenty one, when a small
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: activist investor grew called Engine Number one, won three seats
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: on the Exon Mobile board.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: They booted off the old board members and started to
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  Speaker 1: push for some changes from within. So who knows, be
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Man and maybe hens Ed could be there for our
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: third and final story, of the year. Honda and Nissan
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  Speaker 1: have confirmed that they're in talks are a mega merger
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  Speaker 1: which could radically change the car market.
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  Speaker 2: By the time we're back in January. By man, we
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: could be calling them Nissenda has an interesting ring to it.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me more, well, we spoke on the pot a
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  Speaker 1: few weeks ago about the recent demise of the good
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  Speaker 1: company Nissan.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they warned they only had twelve to four eighteen
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  Speaker 2: months of gas left in the tank if they didn't
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  Speaker 2: make a big move. Not the cash guy. Yeah, there
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: was a hot minute when maybe the cash Kai, the
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  Speaker 2: extral the pathfinder, they were going to disappear into the
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: history books of the car industry.
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  Speaker 1: But now Honda and Nissan, who are both Japanese companies,
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  Speaker 1: have confirmed they're looking to merge.
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  Speaker 2: That's because both companies have kind of struggled lately.
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  Speaker 1: Missen's profit margin cut by seventy percent over the past year, and.
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  Speaker 2: Hundreds four year profits were expected to drop by more
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  Speaker 2: than fourteen percent from.
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  Speaker 1: The previous year, and the goal of this joint merger
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  Speaker 1: would allow the companies to gain economies of scale.
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  Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?
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  Speaker 1: Economies of scale are the cost advantages that exist when
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: a company increases the scale or size of its operations.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: In this case, Man, it's about the merged company producing
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: more cars for fewer costs. The cost of raw materials
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: is cheap out because you're buying in bulk.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: The cost of producing the materials is cheaper because you
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: can make the most of your machines.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: So be man. If Missing and Honda ti the knot,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: they would become the third biggest car maker by sales volume,
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  Speaker 2: only behind Toyota and Volkswagen.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: And that means a whole lot more purchasing and it
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: also means more market share in Australia too. Yeap Nisson
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  Speaker 1: has about four percent of the Australian car market, including yours,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: and Honda has about six percent and does work. Clearly,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the market liked the sound of this news because Nissen
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: share price jumped by twenty four percent, if you don't mind.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Their biggest one day jump in over fifty years. It
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: has been a huge twenty twenty four and this is
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: our final farewell for the year. Enjoy the end of
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: the year, have a safe holiday season, and make sure
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: if you're missing some finance news and some business updates
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: over the break it's all in the Flux app, which
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: ain't going nowhere. Plenty of business news, finance courses and
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: budgeting tools to keep you occupied over that busy summer period.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: A big thank you from Brett and I. We've had
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: an absolute ball this year and looking forward to twenty
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: twenty five.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and we'll see you in twenty twenty five.