This is what of Flux. I'm Brett and I'm justin and it's Wednesday, the fourth of September.
Does it wait? It's believed that Katar Airways is just days away from finalizing a deal to acquire a minority stake in Virgin Australia and given bondser and directs have collapsed recently, it could give Virgin Australia the firepower to bring it to Quantus and Jetstar.
Here in Australia, we desperately need someone to fire up this domestic battle. Uh huh, buck Sam. We are now just seven weeks away from the cutoff to submit your tax return for last financial year. If you don't submit by October thirty first this year, you could face a large fine. And that's why we've released a new article in the Flux out taking you step by step through what you need to do to semit your tax return on the magap websites. Make sure to check it out on the Flux app for more info.
Three informative stories Today Jessy Boy Let's do it for our first. Aria Group has announced that it's considering acquiring right Move for nine billion dollars, the UK's largest digital property platform Aria.
The new mister Worldwide b Man, So tell me more.
Well, Jazyboy. Aria Group is the listed real estate ad company that's behind real estate dot com dot Au, which is Australia's largest property website.
The place where you can look for joint properties well outside your price range.
Now Aria also owns other companies in that space. I'd be thinking Realcommercial dot com dot Au, Flatmates, Mortgage Choice and.
Its majority owned by News Corp Australia.
Now. Aria Group has just announced that it's considering putting forward an offer to acquire the UK's largest digital property platform, which goes by the name of right Move.
The offer would be in cash and shares, but by Babe Man, it's yet to actually approach right Move with an offer.
And Josie Boy. This deal is likely to cost over nine billion bucks and would turn Aria Group into a global powerhouse in the real estate market.
But interestingly, after the announcement, Right Move share price shut up twenty seven percent, but Aria share price dropped over five percent. So what is the key learning here?
Acquisitions can often shake investor confidence before they build up investor confidence.
Well. Right Move share price jumped at the acquisition announcement. Clearly Aria's investors were less keen interesting called juzzy voice, So why is that? Well for starters, the two companies have grown at very different rates Recently.
Aria has grown over twenty five percent in the past year and Right Move has actually dropped by one percent.
Not to mention that Australian companies haven't quite had the best track record with expanding into the UK recently.
A few that come to mind West Farmers, Lend Lease Amp. They all tried and more or less failed to expand into the UK and be Man.
This isn't the first time we've seen a split reaction to an acquisition announcement.
Remember when West Farmers announced it was looking to acquire API, which is the owner of Price Line, back in twenty twenty one, I do West.
Farmer's share price remained largely flat, but API's share price jumped seventeen percent after the announcement.
So Jazi boy. Clearly Aria is testing the market here just to see whether investors are supportive before making their big move.
For our second story, Abercrombie and Fitch, the ninety teen retailer, has seen its quarterly sales jumped over one billion US dollars after doing a major repamp to its brand.
That is a serious blasts from the past, does it, boy? Reminds me of the good time? So tell me more.
Okay. So Abercumbri and Fitch actually started back in eighteen ninety two when they focus on outdoor and sporting goods. We were talking fishing rods, fishing boats, tents.
But in nineteen eighty eight, Abercrombie and Fitch was acquired by L Brands, which also owned Victoria's Secret.
And Abercrombie really leaned into the teen boppy culture of the nineties.
They literally had topless male models at the entrance of their stores dripping in Abercrombie after shade.
And the big Abercrombie logo on each of their T shirts and jumpers was actually the size of my head.
In the early two thousands, Abercrombie faced a heap of controversy.
We're talking staff discrimination claims.
It was titled America's most hated brand.
But b man. In twenty nineteen, Abercrombie overhauled its product and its marketing to distance itself from itself.
AH and more recently, just over the past two years, Abercrombius made a major comeback.
In fact, it's now seen its net sales jumped to over one point one billion US dollars for the quarter, and it expects to continue growing in the coming quarters. But despite this, its share pros actually dropped seven teen percent because it warned of a potentially uncertain environment.
Fascinating. Fascinating, So what's the key learning here?
For some retailers, the best way to maintain relevance is to evolve with your customers. Now.
In the past ten brands like Abercrombie, they focused on things like type jeans or oversized hoodies or graphic teas.
But when fashion trends changed as well as societal expectations, Abercrombie failed to keep up with the youth market.
And they not only lost their existing customers, but the next generation as well.
So now brands like Abercrombie are redamping their clothes to cater to more style needs.
For example, it ain't low cut jeans anymore, but officewar and wedding clothes.
And be man. It's clearly working because Abercrombie share prices jump more than five hundred and twenty percent since the start of twenty twenty three.
Yep, But They're not the only ones. Their rival American Eagle also reported record revenue of one point twenty nine billion US dollars for the quarter, and GAP also beat its estimates as well.
So it's back to the future.
For our third and final story. Air Trunk, the Australian data center group, has been sold for over twenty three billion dollars after twelve month auction that actually got quite heated.
I'd keep telling you, b man, data centers are the new oil. Keep telling you that, so tell me more.
Now. You may have heard of air Trunk, only nine years old.
YEP. Found it in twenty fifteen. It had the goal of developing and operating hyperscale data centers.
Now these hyperscale data centers are larger than your typical enterprise data center.
YEP, more than five thousand servers in the one large place.
And Jasi boy. Since twenty fifteen, air Trunk has built eleven hyperscale data centers and that's across Australia, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong.
Now be back. In twenty twenty, a group led by mcquarie's Infrastructure Fund acquired an eighty eight percent share in air Trunk.
Had a valuation of about three billion bucks.
But over the past few years, data centers have blown up.
Yep, every man, every woman, and every dog is looking for data centers to manage cloud computing and AI applications. And now, after a twelve month auction, air Trunk has been sold to private equity firm Blackstone for a waften twenty three and a half billion.
Bucks and b man this sale will set a new valuation benchmark for other data center.
Businesses to interesting. So what is the key learning here?
When a high profile acquisition takes place, it can establish a new benchmark for all companies in the sector.
Just like property auctions, buyers and sellers use the most recent results as a reference point for negotiations.
And given the enormous price tag on air Truck, they may also see their valuation reassessed by investors.
Does it boy? Air Trunk reportedly generated one billion dollars in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.
This acquisition is at twenty three and a half times it's EBITDAT So deal like this can have a huge impact on the broader data center market. Absolutely, FLEXPAM there is no worse feeling than getting to the end of October and realizing you still haven't done your tax return, so make sure you get on top of it. With a step by step guide in the Flux app on how to submit your tax return on the mag Up website. You will not regret it.
Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Friday.