ASX reporting season: All the latest news as listed companies report their results to investors

Investors have sent shares in Australia’s biggest car dealer rocketing off the back of a buoyant trading outlook boosted by surging demand for hybrid vehicles and record sales of used cars.

Eagers Automotive on Thursday reported a 25 per cent fall in annual profit to $223 million on record revenue of $11.2 billion, but investor focus was on management’s upbeat assessment of the company’s prospects.

In particular, they were taken with the growing sales being recorded by Eagers’ retail joint venture with Chinese carmaker BYD as Australians opt for cheaper hybrid cars over full electric vehicles from the likes of Tesla.

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Qantas will reward shareholders who stuck with the carrier through the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic with their first dividend in almost six years.

Revealing an underlying profit of almost $1.4 billion for the first half today, the board announce a base dividend of $250 million, distributed as fully franked interim payout of 16.5c a share.

It will also pay out $150m as a fully franked special dividend of 9.9c a share.

The distribution marks the first time the carrier has rewarded shareholders since 2018/19, before its entire fleet was grounded as part of lockdown measures aimed at keeping the coronavirus out of Australia.

It was later revealed by former CEO Alan Joyce that the strict measures brought the airline to within just 11 weeks of collapse.

“Our financial strength means we are now in a position to pay our shareholders dividends for the first time in almost six years,” CEO Vanessa Hudson said today.

Australia’s biggest private health insurer will return $160 million to customers as part of its COVID-19 support package and give back program, with those eligible to receive between $50 and $255.

On average, the payout will be $50 for eligible extras only policies and around $130 for eligible hospital and extras policies, Medibank said today.

Chief customer officer Milosh Milisavljevic said Medibank had pledged not to profit from the pandemic, when customers’ ability to claim on their insurance was impacted.

“While COVID restrictions have eased over the past couple of years, we are still seeing slightly lower than expected claims levels, which is why we are announcing we’ll be returning more money to our customers,” he said.

“This will bring the total amount of support Medibank has provided to customers to $1.62 billion.

“We know that many household budgets are under a lot of pressure with rising cost of living, and we hope this extra money provides some relief for our customers.”

Medibank reported a small fall in statutory net profit for the first half to $340.3 million, while underlying profit came in 13.8 per cent higher than a year earlier at $298.7m.

Despite the cost-of-living crisis, Medibank added 18,500 new resident policyholders to its books in the past year and paid out $3.3b in claims in the six months to the end of December.

The board declared an interim dividend of 7.8c a share, fully franked.

Medibank is still recovering from a Russian cyberattack in 2022 which compromised the data of 9.7 million pat and present policyholders.

It paid out another $17.2m in the first half for IT upgrades and legal and other costs related to regulatory investigations and litigation.

President Donald Trump overnight Wednesday gave a series of apparently contradictory answers about his plans to enact tariffs on Canada and Mexico, as well as the European Union.

Trump was asked during a Cabinet meeting whether he planned to move forward on imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico on March 4.

Trump announced the levies earlier this month, but then subsequently agreed to a month-long delay after leaders from both countries agreed to stricter border control measures. But that delay is set to expire next week.

“I’m not stopping the tariffs,” Trump said, before describing how he believed the US had been victim to years of mistreatment by his neighbours.

But Trump later said that the Mexico and Canada tariffs would be implemented on April 2. It wasn’t clear if the president meant that he was giving the countries additional time, or had conflated the Canada and Mexico tariffs with a separate program, under development by the Commerce Department and US Trade Representative, that would impose so-called reciprocal tariffs on nations across the world.

Long-time Coles chair James Graham has announced his retirement from the grocery giant.

Mr Graham will leave the board at the end of April and be replaced by Peter Allen.

Mr Graham was appointed to the top job in 2018 when Coles was spun off from Wesfarmers.

“He has led the board since that time during a period marked by two years of COVID-19 lockdowns, the sale of Coles Express to Viva Energy, the purchase of the Jewel Foods ready meals business and the two Saputo milk processing facilities, and substantial capital investment in automation, new technology and store development,” Coles said.

Mr Graham said Coles was an “iconic Australian company”.

“It has been a period of substantial new investment for Coles, particularly marked by the construction and operation of new automated distribution centres and the investment in world-leading online groceries retailing technologies,” he said.

“I am delighted that Peter has agreed to succeed me as chairman of the board. I am very confident that Coles, under the leadership of our chief executive Leah Weckert, will continue its success as it remains customer focused in providing food, groceries and liquor to all Australians, whilst delivering for shareholders.”

Top brass from the Reserve Bank of Australia will have a chance to provide their views on an uptick in underlying inflation when they face Senate questioning.

The RBA’s preferred inflation gauge - the trimmed mean - rose 0.1 percentage points to 2.8 per cent for January, while the more volatile headline consumer price index held steady at 2.5 per cent.

While the monthly figure released on Wednesday is prone to bounce around more and plays a lesser role in the central bank board’s decision-making, a continued slowdown in housing costs augurs well for March quarter data, available on April 30.

RBA governor Michele Bullock has said the board was cautious about the prospects of further monetary easing following its first 25 rate cut in more than four years earlier in February.

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Australian travellers could pay less for plane tickets after Qatar Airways’ acquisition of a 25 per cent stake in Virgin Australia was given the green light by the Federal Government.

The proposal, which was announced on Thursday, is expected to strengthen competition, deliver more flights and create more jobs.

It is also expected to drive down airfares and benefit regional Australia through improved inbound tourism connections, sales and marketing visibility to these destinations, all while including necessary jobs safeguards, according to Australian Airports Association chief executive Simon Westaway.

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Coles has posted a lift in first-half sales and earnings at its supermarkets arm that likely benefited from strikes that left shelves bare at rival Woolworths.

Coles on Thursday said sales at its 858 supermarkets grew 4.3 per cent to $20.6 billion as earnings lifted 7 per cent to $1.07b.

But this was offset by a 20.2 per cent fall in earnings at its struggling liquor arm.

Coles reported interim group sales up 3.7 per cent to $23.1b as net profit slid 2.2 per cent to $576m.

“We have had a strong focus on value, fresh quality and availability which has supported volume-led growth in supermarkets during the half,” chief executive Leah Weckert said.

“Pleasingly, we saw improving customer experience metrics during the period, reinforcing the importance of delivering affordability and a great shopping experience whilst customers continue to face cost of living pressures.”

Coles has also announced chair James Graham would retire at the end of April, with Peter Allen set to succeed him.

It declared a fully franked interim dividend of 37c per share, up from 36c.

It comes a day after Woolworths reported interim net profit was down 20.6 per cent to $739m, which was impacted by the 17-day strike by its warehouse workers.

“Unfortunately, as we had the industrial action under way in December, it did mean that in many of our stores, customers did need to go to competitors to be able to get products that they may have wanted or to be able to complete a full shop,” Woolworths boss Amanda Bardwell said on Wednesday.

Qantas has reported a 9 per cent lift in revenue for the half year to deliver an 11 per cent rise in underlying net profi before tax of $1.39 billion.

The company said its international division was the core source of revenue growth.

The Flying Kangaroo saw a significant jump in small business and corporate travel to lift domestic earnings to $647 million, while the international division grew underlying earnings by 2 per cent to $327m.

Jetstar saw a record underlying profit before interest and tax of $439m.

In total the company delivered more than $10b in ticket sales, a rise of 9 per cent.

Qantas’ powerhouse loyalty program continued to deliver reporting revenue of $1.3b, up 5 per cent, although underlying profits were down slightly.

The earnings announcement comes comes as Treasurer Jim Chalmers approves Qatar Airways taking a 25 per cent stake in arch rival Virgin.

Virgin has become a major competitor to Qantas since its restructure under Bain Capital, enjoying improved returns following the collapse of Bonza, and the removal of troubled Rex from the so-called golden triangle route of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

A tie-up with Qatar will likely result in more pressure on Qantas’ international division.

Qantas has declared a base dividend of $250 million (fully franked at 16.5 cents per share) and a special dividend of $150 million (fully franked at 9.9 cents per share), bringing the total dividend payout to $400 million.

The S&P 500 ended little changed ahead of quarterly results from Nvidia, whose positive outlook could set the tone for the artificial intelligence sector.

Stocks lost ground in afternoon trading on Wednesday, with investors digesting the latest comments from US President Donald Trump on tariffs.

Trump said on Wednesday his administration will soon announce a 25 per cent tariff on imports from the European Union.

He also raised hopes for another pause on steep new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada by saying they would take effect on April 2, about a month later than a deadline next week.

He also raised hopes for another pause on steep new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada by saying they would take effect on April 2, about a month later than a deadline next week.

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