The Federal Government had next year’s federal election firmly in its sights with this budget, and retirees were among the beneficiaries of its fiscal largesse.
In the 2019 federal election, Labor’s proposal to abolish cash refunds for excess franking credits went down like a lead balloon. So, will the $3 million cap proposal see Labor revisit history?
CIMIC receives all-cash takeover bid from Hochtief parent
CIMIC (ASX:CIM) – Shares in the multi-national building and engineering contractor surged last week, with CIMIC up 30 per cent on the back of an overseas takeover bid to mop-up one of Australia’s largest construction companies. The Spanish giant ACS, has lobbed a $1.5bn bid to end CIMIC’s long-running history on the ASX (as Leighton Holdings, it first listed in 1962). ACS, through its subsidiary Hochtief, the German construction company, already owns 78.6 per cent of CIMIC, and has offered $22 a share for the rest of the company. Hochtief has had a controlling stake in CIMIC since 2001.
The Spanish group has been eyeing off the remaining shares in CIMIC for some time after securing control of UGL and Sedgman. CIMIC is the only missing piece that remains to complete the ACS empire.
Looking at CIMIC’s share price over the last few years, lobbing a takeover offer at its lows of $16.49 would seem rather opportunistic; especially when CIMIC’s share price was hovering around the $50 mark just a few years ago. But there isn’t much that can be done when the company is already 78.6 per cent controlled by Hochtief.
The move has been widely anticipated by CIMIC for some time now. Otherwise known as a ‘checkmate’ in chess, it occurs when a king is placed in check and has no legal moves to escape. So is the case with CIMIC. It’s a sad day for Australian construction companies that have gradually been sold off to foreign owners.
John Holland is owned by China Communications Construction Company and Lendlease’s engineering business was sold to Spanish infrastructure group Acciona. The concentration of the infrastructure industry which is tendering-for and winning the main big infrastructure projects, now and in the future, means the major players are mostly foreign-owned corporations that could have a stranglehold on our government.
The big projects are won by this select few, which have exploded in size purely by acquisitions. The worst part of it all is that many Australians have never heard of ACS or Hochtief, because they’re Australian.
