ASX reporting season: All the latest news as listed companies report their results to investors
Strap in people, today is the mother of all reporting days.
We have miners, we have retail conglomerates, we have household names, we have telcos, we have contractors ... and did we mention miners?
Among the biggest of the big set to dish the dirt on their financials will be Wesfarmers, Rio Tinto, Fortescue, Pilbara Minerals and Telstra.
IGO, NRW Holdings, Sonic Healthcare, Sandfire Resources, Super Retail Group, Perpetual, Tabcorp and Whitehaven Coal will also take centrestage.
Here’s hoping they’ll all be received better than Mineral Resources, which yesterday copped the share market equivalent of a swift kick to the unmentionables.
Billionaire boss Chris Ellison did his best to reassure investors after booking an $807 million first-half loss but investors weren’t buying it. After losing almost 6 per cent the day before, the stock closed yesterday down another 20.7 per cent.
It was brutal, yet we couldn’t look away as Ellison bent over backwards in a call with analysts to say the past was the past (despite the corporate regular still very much probing his old tax evasion affairs) and he was focused on ensuring the viability of the company he founded decades into the future.
A tough sell, clearly.
Let’s see how today’s frontrunners fare.
Stay tuned for all the updates as they happen.
Key Events
Peet in bumper profit rise as enquiries surge
Residential developer Peet has joined WA peer Cedar Wood Properties in reporting a big profit rise on improving demand for its land and home packages.
Net earnings for the six months to December 31 were 63 per cent better at $25.2 million, with directors cranking up the interim dividend by 1.25c to a fully franked 2.75c a share.
Peet chief executive Brendan Gore attributed the improved result to “continuing strong performance across the portfolio, particularly from projects in Queensland, WA and South Australia”.
Peet’s profit margins leapt to 26 per cent from 18 per cent off the back of stronger sales in its funds management businesses and higher prices on its lots.
Mr Gore said enquiry levels remained “materially higher” than Peet’s 10-year average, increasing more than 80 per cent in the first half on a year earlier.
Peet has forecast a full-year net profit of between $50m and $44m.
Its shares were 3 per cent higher at $1.54 as at 9.10am.
VEEM profit down but better second half expected
WA industrial company VEEM has emerged from a tough first half with a near-halved net profit of $1 million but a brighter outlook.
The company, which makes propulsion and stabilisers for the marine and defence industries, said on Thursday that revenue was 10 per cent lower at $35.6m.
Both earnings and revenue were within VEEM’s guidance. The profit was down 71 per cent from the same period a year ago.
“There is no doubt that the first half of the 2025 financial year was challenging, however we expect the second half to be better from both a revenue and margin perspective,” managing director Mark Miocevich said.
“Delayed orders and the increase in cyclical defence work will feed into the second half and repeat orders from challenging new industrial work completed in the first half are expected to yield better margins in conjunction with cost reduction measures,” he said.
Mr Miocevich called out an expected increase in the production of propellors from 4500 to 5500 this financial year for customers including Volvo and luxury boat builders.
Directors declared an interim dividend of 0.23 cents a share.
VEEM shares were 3 per cent higher at 87.5 cents as at 8.30am.
IGO books mammoth $782m loss in first-half
IGO has released a set of half-year financial results that show a sea of red.
The miner reported an impairment-heavy loss of $782 million for the six-month period - compared to a profit of $288.3m a year earlier - as revenue nosedived 35 per cent to $284m.
IGO has a 49 per cent stake in Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia, with the remainder owned by China’s Tianqi.
TLEA owns the Kwinana hydroxide refinery outright and a 51 per cent slice of the Greenbushes mine in WA’s South West — Australia’s most profitable lithium mine.
The reduction in profit was primarily due to the group’s lower share of profits from TLEA, which decreased to a share of loss of $602.2m for the period, compared to a share of profit of $495.2m in the prior correspoding period.
IGO said the loss was compounded by impairment charges on the group’s exploration assets and lower operating results from its Nova and Forrestania nickel operations in the Goldfields.
Its share of sales from Greenbushes in the half did the bulk of the damage.
Greenbushes - in which IGO holds a 24.99 per cent indirect interest - recorded sales revenue of $862.8m and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $591.7m for the six-month period.
Those were down from sales of $3.53 billon and EBITDA of $3.18b a year earlier.
The loss from TLEA includes an impairment charge of $524.6m against the assets of the Kwinana Refinery, which IGO said reflects the impact of falling lithium hydroxide prices and continuing teething problems that have plagued the project for years.
Fellow lithium player PLS - recently rebranded from Pilbara Minerals - also took a hit from the lithium price pain, reporting today a $69m loss.
Lithium price pain drives PLS to $69m loss
A savage price drop for its lithium concentrate has dragged PLS - recently rebranded from Pilbara Minerals - to a $69 million loss for the first half of the year.
A 28 per cent rise in production compared to the previous year to 408,300 tonnes help to ease the pain but average realised prices were a staggering 58 per cent lower, down from $US1880 a tonne to $US780/t.
Overall, revenue was 44 per cent lower to $426 million.
Managing director Dale Henderson said Pilbara still achieved new production and sales records from it Pilgangoora operation near Port Hedland.
“As previously announced, the second half of FY25 will see the ramp‐up of the P1000 project,” Mr Henderson said.
“As such production volumes for the second half of FY25 are expected to be weighted towards the June quarter and unit costs will be temporarily higher.
“Once fully ramped up in FY26 the P1000 expansion project is expected to drive higher volumes and lower unit costs through achieving higher lithium recoveries and leveraging scale efficiencies.
“This sets the business up to capitalise on future pricing increases whilst also being able to navigate lower price cycles today.”
No dividend was declared.
Whyalla gets a lifeline
Billions will be poured into the Whyalla steelworks as part of a rescue package, in a bid to save thousands of jobs.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas will on Thursday visit the city to announce as much as $2 billion in funding, one day after the crisis-hit GFG Alliance was ousted.
The state government rushed legislation through the parliament on Wednesday, giving it authority to act on debts owed by GFG to secure the steelwork’s future operations.
Read more here ...
Telstra buyback after big first-half
Telstra is raising its dividend and will spend up to $750 million buying back its shares after the telecommunications firm grew its first-half profit by 7.1 per cent.
Telstra on Thursday said it made $1.1 billion in net profit in the first half, after a strong performance from its mobile business with 119,000 net new customers.
Its revenue for the six months to December 31 was up 1.5 per cent to $11.6 billion, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation climbing six per cent to $4.2 billion.
Read more here ...
Green spending to be trimmed as iron ore profits fall at FMG
Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue has hit another shipment record, pumping out 97.1 million tonnes in the first half of the financial year.
That’s a 3 per cent improvement on the first half of the prior year.
But revenues of $US7.6 billion fell 20 per cent on the prior period as a tonne of iron ore decreased to $US85.
Read more here
Bunnings again proves power for Wesfarmers
Wesfarmers says high costs will remain a challenge for households, despite this week’s easing of interest rates by the Reserve Bank, while warning geopolitical risk will continue to present uncertainties to Australia’s economic outlook and market conditions for the rest of the year.
But the company behind Bunnings, Officeworks, Kmart, Target and a stable of health and industrial business units said low unemployment and continued population growth would support spending.
The Rob Scott-led conglomerate on Thursday again proved mostly impervious to cost of living pressures to report revenue in the first half to $23.49 billion — up 3.6 per cent on the same period a year earlier.
Read more here
Inflationary pressures hit Rebel owner
The retailer behind the Rebel and Supercheap Auto brands has posted a drop in interim profit, blaming ongoing inflationary pressures on the cost of doing business.
Super Retail Group - behind Rebel, Supercheap Auto, BCF and Macpac - said net profit declined 9.8 per cent in the half-year to $129.8 million as sales grew 4 per cent to $2.1 billion.
BCF was the star performer for the group amid growing demand for camping gear. Its sales grew 6.9 per cent to $518m.
Sales at Supercheap Auto grew 1.7 per cent, Rebel rose 4 per cent and Macpac up 1.7 per cent.
“Super Retail Group delivered solid first half sales growth of 4 per cent - a pleasing outcome considering the challenging consumer conditions throughout the period, especially in New Zealand,” group chief executive Anthony Heraghty said.
The retailer said the sales momentum continued into the second half. It plans to open 28 new stores in the full-year, with 19 already opened.
It declared a fully franked interim dividend of 32¢ per share.
Super Retail shares plunged 12.7 per cent to $14.13 in early trade.
While you were sleeping ...
US stocks have ended modestly higher and the S&P 500 notched its second straight record closing high as investors scrutinised the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January policy meeting and digested US President Donald Trump’s tariff plans.
All three major US equity indices made gains on Wednesday.
At the Fed’s January policy meeting, the US central bank left its key interest rate unchanged.
Read more here ...
