Aurizon rallies after cyclone
RAIL freight operator Aurizon delivered its highest quarterly coal haulage volumes since December 2013, as haulage recovered from Cyclone Debbie and new tonnages began running through the Hunter Valley.
Aurizon hauled 54.9 million tonnes of coal during the three months to September 31, a 7 per cent improvement when compared to the 51.2 million tonnes hauled during the same period a year ago, allowing the company to keep its FY18 guidance between 215 million to 225 million tonnes.
Aurizon said the improved volumes reflected in part the July start of an 8.7 million tonne per annum AGL Macquarie deal for coal haulage between AGL’s Bayswater and Liddell power stations in the NSW Hunter Valley. The deal runs through to December 2025 and takes Aurizon’s contracted tonnages in NSW to around 55mtpa. SHARES in property and construction giant Lendlease have plummeted after it sold a stake in its retirement living business and forecast a fall in earnings from its Australian construction business.
Lendlease is selling a 25 per cent stake in its business that owns and operates retirement villages to privately owned investment firm APG Asset Management NV, and said a requirement to write down the value of certain deferred tax assets associated with the business would result in the deal delivering a net loss of about $ 35 million.
In a market update issued late Tuesday, Lendlease also said its financial performance in the 2017- 18 financial year would be impacted by the underperformance of its Australian construction business, which is related to a small number of engineering projects. BHP Billiton has posted a 3 per cent drop in iron ore production to 56 million tonnes for the September quarter, as planned maintenance and lower stockpiles affected volumes during the quarter.
Its petroleum production was also 8 per cent lower at 50 million barrels of oil equivalent ( mboe) with its US assets impacted by Hurricane Harvey, but copper output jumped 14 per cent in the quarter to 404,000 tonnes.
The resources giant has reaffirmed the full- year production and cost guidance for all commodities. MINING giant Rio Tinto and two top former executives have been charged with fraud by the US market regulator for allegedly inflating the value of an African coal business that cost the company a $ 2.9 billion writedown.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Rio Tinto former chief executive Tom Albanese and former finance head Guy Elliott of seeking to “hide or delay” disclosure of problems at the Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique ( RTCM) business, which was acquired in 2011 for $ 4 billion and sold for just $ 50 million three years later.
The SEC will allege in court that Rio’s top executives breached disclosure rules “by hiding from their board, auditor and investors the crucial fact that a multi- billion dollar transaction was a failure”.
Rio acquired the coal assets as part of its acquisition of Riversdale Mining in 2011.
The project suffered immediate setbacks, with a drop in quantity and quality of coal, coupled with the lack of infrastructure to transport it, which significantly eroded the value of the acquisition, the complaint alleges. The SEC alleges that Rio Tinto, along with the two top executives, concealed the adverse developments, which followed a heavy im- pairment the company sustained over a previous Alcan acquisition.
As a result, the SEC alleges, Rio Tinto released misleading financial statements in order to raise $ US5.5 billion from US investors.
The regulator alleges $ US3 billion was raised after May 2012, when executives at RTCM had already informed Mr Albanese and Mr Elliott that the business was “likely worth negative $ 680 million”. “They tried to save their own careers at the expense of investors by hiding the truth,” SEC co- director Steven Peikin said in a statement.
The SEC complaint seeks penalties including barring the executives from serving as directors, civil penalties and a “return of allegedly ill- gotten gains plus interest”. Rio Tinto said it would defend itself against the allegations.