Reporting season: All the latest news from companies releasing financial results to the ASX today

An Australian-based global property group is back in the red after posting its fourth annual loss in five years, as its offshore retreat and foreign asset sales continue to hit its bottom line.

Lendlease, which has development, construction and investment management arms, suffered a bottom line loss of $749 million in the year ended June 30.

That was a major turnaround from a $225m net profit in the previous year.

“This is obviously a disappointing outcome,” Lendlease chief financial officer Andrew Nieland told an earnings briefing on Monday.

Buyers were being careful in the current market environment, chief investment officer Penny Ransom said.

“It’s fair to say, with the uncertainty that is in the market, buyers are taking more time to consider their their transactions,” she told analysts.

“But what that also brings is a real focus on quality.”

It has been more than two years since Lendlease began selling off its construction units in the UK, US and Canada to focus on its Australian business, but the massive restructure continues to weigh.

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Shares in Balcatta-based Imdex opened Monday 9 per cent higher, before tumbling to be more than 6 per cent in the red by 10.30am.

The acquisitive mining data and technology firm reported record full-year revenue of $520 million, up 21 per cent year-on-year.

This flowed through to a 44 per cent rise in net profit to a record $79m.

Imdex spent more than $120m on three acquisitions in the space of two months during the 2026 financial year.

Its main buy was for Luxembourg-headquartered Advanced Logic Technology.

“FY2026 was an excellent year for Imdex, delivering record revenue, strong earnings growth and margin expansion,” managing director Paul House said.

“We continued to outperform underlying exploration activity and delivered growth across all regions.”

Imdex did not provide earnings guidance for the year ahead and investors appeared to be worried about inflation impacts on profit margins.

“I do think there is a continuation of that rising cost environment into FY2027,” Mr House said on an analyst call after the results were released.

“We will have to absorb that . . . and that’s why we’re investing in things that make our business scalable operationally.

“So I do think the ripple effects from Hormuz and some of these other areas are still yet to roll through the industry more globally, including Australia.”

Shares in Imdex were changing hands for $3.63 by 11.25am, down 5.7 per cent on last week’s close.

Investors will be looking beyond headline earnings to guidance, commodity prices, capital expenditure and dividend expectations.

That’s the word from Moomoo market strategy consultant Greg Boland said, who said the local earnings season was heading into a busy week, especially for the resources sector.

“With the ASX trading near record levels, company results will be important in determining whether current valuations can be supported by stronger earnings growth,” he said.

A gloomy household spending outlook continued to weigh on consumer discretionary stocks this morning, which fell 2.5 per cent as JB Hi-Fi, Super Retail, Wesfarmers and Harvey Norman led a broad sector sell-off.

JB Hi-Fi was down more than 11 per cent and on track for its worst session since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, after revealing Australian sales were contracting.

Materials stocks offered the index some support, with the segment up 1.6 per cent as gold and copper prices jumped, with gold trading at $US4396 an ounce.

National Australia Bank shares fell after the lender revealed slowing mortgage growth and cash earnings that were below consensus estimates.

The bank’s stock price fell as much as 4.8 per cent after reporting unaudited cash earnings of $1.83 billion in the three months to June 30. The lender said home loan applications were down 15 per cent in the third quarter.

The cash earnings were about 2 per cent below consensus with the miss largely due to lower markets and treasury income, according to Thomas Strong, an analyst with Citigroup, who said the update was otherwise in line with expectations.

NAB’s housing credit growth projections are lower than its peers’ forecasts, the analyst also said.

Australian lenders are contending with a slowing housing market that’s expected to deepen and is threatening to eat further into profitability.

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Australia’s biggest steelmaker has delivered a big jump in annual profit, vindicating its decision to reject a takeover bid.

BlueScope Steel, which has been undergoing a period of major investment and owns the Port Kembla steelworks in southern NSW, says it’s now heading into a position of “real strength”.

It made a bottom-line net profit of $802 million for the year ended June 30, up 857 per cent, although the result skewed higher after an impairment charge booked in the previous year rolled off the books.

The 2025/26 underlying result, before interest and tax, came to $1.27b, a jump of 73 per cent, helped by strong performances for its premium and pre-painted steel products.

Earlier this year, BlueScope rejected a $15 billion takeover bid, equating to $32.35 per share, from the Stokes family-controlled SGH and its US bid partner Steel Dynamics, saying it undervalued its assets and potential.

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JB Hi-Fi boss Nick Wells says he has seen a marked downturn in trading from July as the combined impact of higher interest rates, a poorly received Federal Budget and a cooling housing market kept shoppers away.

“From a macro perspective, it has got a little bit harder,” Mr Wells told analysts as he unveiled record sales in the 2026 financial year.

In July, same-store sales growth for the flagship Australian JB Hi-Fi stores fell 1.4 per and at The Good Guys, slumped 1.7 per cent.

At home appliance and bathroom retailer e&s, same-store sales declined 4 per cent, while JB Hi-Fi NZ posted a near-12 per cent growth.

(July) is one month and it is a small month, and I would say it’s not a promotional period,” Mr Wells said.

“What we can see is that those promotional periods have become increasingly when customers are looking for value, and so periods like end-of-financial year in June and Black Friday become really important, and then maybe it sucks a little bit out of those non-promotional periods like July.”

Mr Wells said it was also cycling the Nintendo Switch 2 release the prior year.

He warned suppliers continued to push prices higher and stock availability shortages in the technology categories remain a key issue.

Bill Beament’s Develop Global has awarded a $275 million engineering and procurement contract for its Yitirrti copper-zinc-silver project south of Port Hedland to GR Engineering.

Formerly the Sulphur Spring project, its processing plant will have a nameplate capacity of 1.5 million tonnes a year and produce separate copper-silver and zinc concentrates.

Total capital costs for the project are estimated at $450m.

Trafigura, which is providing a debt facility of $570m, has committed to offtake agreements covering copper and zinc concentrates.

“The award of this contract to GRES is another major milestone on our path to production and cashflow at Yitirrti by mid-2028,” Beament said,

“GRES is the leader in its field and has done an outstanding job at Woodlawn, where it refurbished and upgraded the processing plant.

“The plant has already achieved steady-state throughput rates and is performing extremely well, particularly given the short time it has been operating.”

He said construction and underground development at Yitirrti was already well advanced and long-lead items have been secured.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned One Nation’s approach to reforming the superannuation system could jeopardise the retirement savings of millions of Australian workers.

One Nation has signalled a willingness to open the door for cash-strapped Australians to more easily tap into their retirement savings but has not announced an official policy.

Party leader Pauline Hanson told News24 on Sunday: “There’s a lot in that one with compulsory superannuation.

“A lot of Australians are doing it tough now and struggling to pay their mortgages.

“In some ways, I feel that you should give them their money now and let them help them with the cost of living. It is their money; they’ve sacrificed it in lieu of pay.”

But Senator Hanson’s proposal sparked criticism from Mr Chalmers, who said it put the “future of Australia’s world-leading compulsory superannuation system” at risk.

He accused One Nation, alongside the Coalition – which took an early super policy to the last two elections – of harbouring an “anti-worker” and “anti-super” ideology that “would absolutely decimate the economic security” of Australian workers.

“If this plays out after the next election, Australian workers will be much worse off,” he said.

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume earlier refused to rule out the Coalition returning to its super policy.

Early access to super on compassionate grounds is granted by the Australian Taxation Office under limited circumstances. This includes medical treatment, help to cover the death and funeral expenses of a dependent or to prevent the foreclosure or forced sale of a home.

Although severe financial hardship is not captured by this definition, Australians can apply on these grounds directly with their super providers.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce told Seven’s Sunrise that One Nation wanted to broaden the definition of compassionate grounds.

Australia’s biggest steelmaker has booked a surge in full-year profit after a flurry of difficult and costly project investments, and says the global outlook remains mixed amid massive competition from China.

BlueScope’s reported profit for 2025-26 totalled $802 million, up from $83.8m for the previous financial year, driven by its North American division, where it said operating conditions remained strong.

But in Southeast Asia, record Chinese steel exports weighed heavily on the business.

In Australia, a $415 million project to construct of a new state-of-the-art metal coating line at BlueScope’s Erskine Park facility in Western Sydney has proved tricky.

“The project has taken longer and cost more than initially anticipated, largely reflecting the high inflation environment for capital projects, as well as the extensive wet weather delays throughout the construction period,” chief executive Tania Archibald said.

Ms Archibald, who took the helm from company veteran Mark Vassella in February, said it had been a demanding year.

At BlueScope’s old-school flagship steelworks in Port Kembla, NSW, the timeline has slipped to reline its dormant number six blast furnace in a $1.15 billion project.

Ms Archibald said it had been pushed back to early in the second half of fiscal 2027, “reflecting the scale and complexity” of the undertaking.

She also said the company was “determined to learn” from the death of a contractor at the project, Jack McGrath, who was fatally injured by a falling beam in November.

“Throughout the year, our global safety refocus program guided our work on critical risks and the effectiveness of the controls that manage them,” Ms Archibald said.

“But our performance is not yet where it needs to be.”

JB Hi-Fi may have showered its shareholders in an improved payout, but investors are clearly concerned about shrinking sales since the start of the new financial year.

The electronics retailer earlier reported record revenue for FY26 and a solid increase in profit but also noted sales in July had recorded negative growth.

Shareholders marked the stock down more than 9 per cent in the opening few minutes of trade to $73.70.