WiseTech stock surges after CEO stands down
Jonathan Barrett
Technology company WiseTech Global enjoyed a double-digit surge in its share price on Friday after its embattled founder Richard White stood aside, creating a circuit breaker to weeks of damaging news.
Shares jumped almost 20% before retracing to trade at the $113 mark by early afternoon, representing a 14% rise.
WiseTech announced after the market closed yesterday that White would stand down as chief executive “with immediate effect”.
After a short period of leave, White will return in a consulting role for a 10-year term with the title “founder and founding CEO”. His $1m annual pay packet will remain unchanged.
The company has started a search for a new CEO.
White has been under extreme pressure after weeks of damaging revelations about his personal life.
The company’s shares were trading at as high as $137 at the start of the month before the revelations spooked shareholders.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Garry Sherriff said in a note today that the leadership transition represented a “positive circuit breaker”.
Key events
What happened, Friday 25 October 2024
With that, we’ll end our live coverage of the day’s news.
Here’s a summary of the main news developments:
Thanks for reading – have a pleasant evening.
Australia and UK announce new climate and energy deal
Australia and the United Kingdom have struck a new deal to tackle climate change and collaborate on energy initiatives at a meeting between the nations’ leaders.
Anthony Albanese met with Keir Starmer for the first time on the sidelines of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Apia, Samoa.
The climate and energy partnership was announced on Friday, focusing on the “accelerated” development of renewable energy like offshore wind and green hydrogen through shared cooperation.
A joint statement referenced no specific initiatives, instead focusing on net zero emissions targets set by both nations.
Starmer said Australia and the UK shared many things in common. He said:
This partnership underscores our commitment to powering up the UK with clean energy projects that will benefit communities across the country.
Together, we’re delivering better futures for our two countries, whether that’s through protecting our national security with projects like Aukus or delivering on our net zero commitments.”
Albanese said:
This partnership will ensure we maximise the economic potential of the net zero transition, and build on our long-standing cooperation on international climate action and shared commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
We share a vision for a modern and transformed Australia-United Kingdom relationship, which delivers tangible benefits and prosperity to both our nations and the Indo-Pacific.”
Other discussions between the two leaders revolved around the Australia-UK free trade agreement, security and stability across the Indo-Pacific and negotiations for a bilateral treaty announced in September to develop the SSN-Aukus submarine for both nations.
The biennial meeting is being hosted by the Samoan prime minister, Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, and is expected to focus heavily on regional security and tackling climate change.
King Charles addressed the gathering on Thursday.
– PA
Peter Hannam
Reserve Bank posts annual loss of $4.2bn
The RBA’s own finances aren’t that rosy, at least on paper.
It clocked up another annual loss of $4.2bn, mostly because its liabilities increase along with the cash rate but the returns on many of its assets remain fixed at the record low rates of 2020 and 2021. Still, that shortfall was better than the $6bn lost in the previous year.
It also has negative equity of $20.4bn, or about 15.3% more than for the 2022-23 year. Positive equity is not forecast until about 2030 (and a lot can change before then):
RBA posts another annual loss of $4.2bn, leaving net negative equity of $20.4bn. The bank projects its equity will eventually recover to be positive by about 2030 (barring more market meltdowns, presumably). pic.twitter.com/9uzaxlxFCZ
— @[email protected] (@p_hannam) October 25, 2024
“Negative equity does not affect our operations or ability to perform our policy functions, but the Reserve Bank Board considers it important that the RBA’s capital be restored over time,” the governor, Michele Bullock, said in a foreword to the report.
The RBA has historically paid a lot of profit to governments – a tradition we don’t expect to see revived for a while.
As for the bit borrowers probably care about, Bullock indicated interest rate cuts aren’t likely to come in a rush (short of some major calamity, presumably).
She said:
Inflation remained high in 2023/24, and we expect that it will take another year or two before it is sustainably back to the Reserve Bank Board’s target of between 2 and 3%.
[The RBA board] recognises the challenging task it faces in bringing inflation back to target in a reasonable timeframe while preserving as many of the gains in the labour market as possible”.
Inflation figures for the September quarter, though, will land next Wednesday. A benign set of numbers (not out of the question) will stoke hopes of interest rate cuts before the RBA gets to sign off on another annual report.
Peter Hannam
RBA governor’s remuneration tops $1.25m
The Reserve Bank has released its annual report for the 2023-24 year, with the usual array of titbits.
The tabloids may jump on the remuneration details to contrast with mortgage-holders’ pain. Michele Bullock, who became governor about one-quarter of the way into the financial year, collected a base salary of $811,108 for the time spent at the top.
That came on top of $179,098 earned as deputy governor for part of the year. All up, including superannuation and her package being “inflated by her accrued long service leave being revalued” after her promotion, Bullock’s remuneration totalled $1,262,215 – or about 52% more than she earned a year earlier.
That package was also a touch over 10% more than her predecessor, Philip Lowe, earned in his final year before being punted. Lowe’s final months, during the 2023-24 financial year, generated him remuneration of $261,940.
It looks like a lot of money, but it pales against the income of many top CEOs – and probably quite a few people who are good at kicking or hitting balls – and the RBA is arguably Australia’s most important financial institution. (Please send any correspondence to the RBA.)
Cannabis crop worth $26m set alight in Victoria
More than $26m worth of cannabis has been destroyed after Victorian police arrested five people in one of the state’s largest drug busts of its kind.
Major Drug Squad detectives and local police swooped on a rural property in Leongatha South, in the state’s south-east, where they uncovered 6,525 cannabis plants.
The discovery inside several commercial-sized hothouses on Tuesday included cannabis seedlings through to mature-sized plants, weighing 1.7 tonnes in total.
The bust was “one of the most significant and complex” hydroponic cannabis set-ups the force had seen in recent times, Victoria police Acting Inspector Leemara Fairgrieve said on Friday.
“There were various other buildings on the property so in various locations within that property there was pretty much plants everywhere,” she told reporters.
It took more than 15 officers three days to dismantle and remove all the plants from the property, with water, electricity and dams part of the well-co-ordinated and methodical set-up.
“It’s a long time and a very dirty and smelly job … it’s a really hard, arduous job for the members and then at the end, all of the items were destroyed out at the property,” Fairgrieve said.
AAP
WiseTech stock surges after CEO stands down
Jonathan Barrett
Technology company WiseTech Global enjoyed a double-digit surge in its share price on Friday after its embattled founder Richard White stood aside, creating a circuit breaker to weeks of damaging news.
Shares jumped almost 20% before retracing to trade at the $113 mark by early afternoon, representing a 14% rise.
WiseTech announced after the market closed yesterday that White would stand down as chief executive “with immediate effect”.
After a short period of leave, White will return in a consulting role for a 10-year term with the title “founder and founding CEO”. His $1m annual pay packet will remain unchanged.
The company has started a search for a new CEO.
White has been under extreme pressure after weeks of damaging revelations about his personal life.
The company’s shares were trading at as high as $137 at the start of the month before the revelations spooked shareholders.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Garry Sherriff said in a note today that the leadership transition represented a “positive circuit breaker”.
Emily Wind
Many thanks for joining me on today’s blog. Elias Visontay will take you through the rest of our rolling coverage. Take care and enjoy your weekend.
Stolen antique guns found after being made operational
Part of a horde of antique handguns stolen from a community-run museum has been recovered after the weapons were modified to become operational, AAP reports.
Police searched a property in Nowra on the NSW south coast this morning and seized more than a dozen firearms as well as 10,000 rounds of ammunition. They also took custody of a 3D printer and printed firearm parts, $64,700 in cash, 2.3kg of cannabis, and a buggy and two motocross bikes believed to be stolen.
Two men, aged 25 and 29, were arrested and each charged with more than 20 firearms offences. Police believe six of the seized guns were stolen from the Lithgow Small Arms Factory in August. The men were refused bail to appear before Nowra local court today.
Three other men were arrested and charged with the theft in September, when they were accused of stealing 27 commemorative guns from the museum for a profit-driven heist. The weapons included one from the 1700s and a pistol gifted by the Sultan of Oman.
Detectives were told the handguns, worth more than $200,000, could be made operational with modifications. Some of the guns might have been sold to “unwitting” members of the public, police said previously.
People would not face prosecution if they turned in the weapons to a registered firearms dealer or police station, investigators said. The six guns seized in the latest raid had all been made operational, while another eight stolen weapons remain unaccounted for.
Map of areas with severe heatwave warning
As we flagged earlier, there are heatwave warnings in place for parts of the NT, WA and Queensland today. The Bureau of Meteorology has published this video, demonstrating which areas are impacted:
Victoria police provide update on fatal truck crash
Detective Sergeant Stephen Hill addressed the media earlier this afternoon after a truck crashed into a house in regional Victoria and left two dead.
He said the truck went through the front bedroom of the house, which is currently quarantined due to some asbestos issues.
It appears both victims were in the front bedroom at the time. At least one, I believe, was sleeping at the time. The other one doesn’t appear to be.
Hill said a number of vehicles were on the road when this occurred and called triple zero after being “witnesses to the traumatic events that occurred this morning”.
It’s a pretty dead-straight road. There’s no reason for vehicles to swerve, unless they’re overtaking. But how and why and what was going on inside the truck that caused the collision is something we will just have to look at over time.
‘Stay informed’ fire warnings for Queensland communities amid increased danger rating
Earlier we flagged there was a high fire danger rating for large parts of Queensland today. The state’s fire department has issued “stay informed” warnings for three communities:
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Mutchilba (near Mareeba) between Algoma Road, Mareeba Dimbulah Road and Springmount Road
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Canaga (near Chinchilla) between Southern Boundary Road, Davis Road, Woods Roads, Blowers Road and Pit Road
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Dalby between Wilds Road, Warrego Highway, Newtown Stephen Road, Duncans Road and Ritters Road
The department said there is no immediate danger for these communities, but they should say informed “because conditions could change”.
