☕️Board Battle

Good morning.

In a report distributed to clients and viewed by Capital Brief, influential proxy advisor Ownership Matters is advising clients to vote against the re-election of Iluka Resources director Susie Corlett because of her longstanding presence on the board of troubled lithium and iron ore producer Mineral Resources.

Last year MinRes founder Chris Ellison was fined by the company and forced to apologise to shareholders for material corporate governance shortcomings, and the company is now the subject of an ASIC probe and faces a class action.

🏆 LOI Subscriber #TBD

Market movers

Bellevue Gold nosedived Tuesday after slashing guidance, scrapping its growth plan and raising $156.5m at a steep discount.

The quick sync

• APRA steps back from dedicated oversight of small banks, raising concerns about regulatory gaps amid rising sector risks and pressure to consolidate. (Capital Brief)

• Chris Cuffe warns mediocre managers kill returns in private markets, as his APS Foundation backs elite funds while pushing toward a $1 billion target. (Capital Brief)

• As Mark Linter writes, banks are still botching non-financial risk — tangled in red tape, stripped of accountability and blind to lessons from the past. (Capital Brief)

• A cyber breach at the OCC has spooked big banks like JPMorgan into cutting digital ties, raising fresh doubts about the regulator’s security and transparency. (WSJ)

Trading floor

M&A

• BlackRock to acquire StoreLocal, expanding into Australia's self-storage market with a $400m portfolio. (AFR)

• Barclays is close to selling a stake in its payments business to Brookfield Asset Management, with Brookfield possibly increasing its share after a few years. (Bloomberg)

• Aristocrat Leisure is negotiating to acquire Interblock, a leading electronic table gaming company, for about $1b. (The Australian)

Capital Markets

• Trump probes chip and drug imports for tariffs, prompting industry warnings and U.S. investment moves. (Capital Brief)

• Hub24 added $4.9b in Q3 net inflows, growing FUA and market share despite market headwinds. (Capital Brief)

• Robex launches $120m IPO to fund Guinea's Kiniero gold project, offering shares at a 14.8% discount. (AFR)

• Collins Foods exits Taco Bell, flags impairments, shifts focus to KFC growth in Germany amid leadership changes. (Capital Brief)

• Westpac and CBA criticized over $500m loan to Tassal, with activists calling it misleading and damaging to Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour. (AFR)

• Bapcor is merging its Specialist Networks and Wholesale divisions to boost competitiveness, appointing new leadership and aiming to grow its Trade business. (Capital Brief)

• Galan Lithium raises $10m via placement and share plan, joining broader resource sector capital raisings. (AFR)

• Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo are issuing bonds in the US market, following strong sales by Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan. (Bloomberg)

• Evolution Mining stays on track for FY targets, greenlights Cowal mine extension for underground growth. (Capital Brief)

• Accent to launch Sports Direct in ANZ via 25-year Frasers deal, expanding sports retail and brand access. (Capital Brief)

• Hermès surpassed LVMH to become the most valuable luxury brand as LVMH shares fell 7.9% following poor first-quarter results. (FT)

• Mike Cannon-Brookes raises $157m for SunCable’s Australia-Asia Power Link, delivering solar energy from NT to Singapore. (AFR)

• L1 Capital and Ten Cap outperformed in a tough month for hedge funds by successfully shorting underperforming stocks like NAB and James Hardie. (AFR)

• Star Entertainment focuses on non-gaming revenue and customer re-engagement after a $302m loss and market share decline. (Capital Brief)

• WAM Income Maximiser raises $150m, missing $510m target amid tough market conditions. (AFR)

• UBS cuts China's growth forecast to 3.4% due to tariff impacts, with further risks if no stimulus is implemented. (Capital Brief)

• China halts Boeing deliveries and US aircraft-related orders in response to US tariffs, hindering Boeing's market in China. (Capital Brief) (Bloomberg)

• Harvard rejects Trump’s demands, faces $2.2b funding freeze and risks $9b in federal funds. (Capital Brief)

• Eli Lilly says delays in listing drugs on the PBS could see it pull millions from Australian trials, amid Trump’s looming pharma tariffs. (AFR)

• South Korea is injecting $36b into its chip sector to counter US tariff threats and rising Chinese competition, with added infrastructure and fiscal support planned through 2026. (Capital Brief) (Reuters)

• JD Vance says there's a “good chance” of a UK-US trade deal due to Trump’s affinity for the UK. (Capital Brief)

• Bridgepoint, Carlyle, and Ardian are investing $350m for a 40% stake in consultancy firm Argon & Co. (AFR)

• Citigroup and BofA exceeded profit expectations on strong trading and consumer spending, sending bank shares higher despite tariff concerns. (Capital Brief)

• Chris Cuffe’s APS Foundation, backing ventures like Guzman y Gomez, is set to hit $1b by 2028 and says only elite managers consistently win in private equity and VC. (Capital Brief)

• Zuckerberg considered spinning off Instagram in 2018, citing concerns that its success was hurting Facebook and complicating their strategy. (Bloomberg)

• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made trades in Amazon, Blackstone, and Tesla before Trump’s tariff pause announcement, which led to a market rally, prompting calls for investigations into possible insider trading. (Bloomberg)

• Citi shrugs off the trade war fallout, pitching its international sprawl as a moneymaker while tariffs push clients to rejig how—and where—they do business. (Bloomberg)

• L1 Capital defied the March market rout with a sharp short on NAB, emerging as one of few hedge funds to post gains while rivals stumbled. (AFR)

• TikTok is exploding with videos guiding users to buy luxury goods direct from Chinese factories, exposing markups and sidestepping Trump’s tariffs. (Bloomberg) (AFR)

• Westpac and CBA are under fire for a $500m “sustainability-linked” loan to salmon farmer Tassal, accused of greenwashing while fuelling environmental damage in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour. (AFR)

• Big pharma presses Brussels for urgent reforms and cost relief as looming US tariffs threaten to accelerate industry shift away from Europe. (Reuters)

• US banks hold staffing steady as Trump tariffs rattle markets and raise job cut risks (Reuters)

• A bold union bid is testing Labor’s new workplace laws on Chemist Warehouse, with a case that could crack open the pharmacy industry to collective bargaining. (AFR)

• Labor and the Liberals quietly bankrolled their 2022 election campaigns with at least $5.8 million in short-term Westpac loans, secured largely on expected public funding. (AFR)

• Australia’s top superfunds are using private assets to buffer returns from Trump-driven market chaos, despite rising scrutiny over how often these assets are revalued. (AFR)

• Trump signals openness to a millionaire tax bracket as Republicans weigh a 40% top rate to fund 2025 cuts, marking a major break from party orthodoxy. (Bloomberg)

• OpenAI is testing a social media platform with ChatGPT at its core, signalling a bold step into territory dominated by X and Meta. (Reuters)(The Verge)

• Big US banks say consumer spending is holding up despite rising fears of tariffs and recession, but signs of strain are emerging as Trump’s trade threats shake confidence. (WSJ)

VC

• Q-CTRL has created a jam-proof navigation solution that outperforms traditional GPS by up to 50 times, addressing the growing issue of GPS jamming in defense and global operations. (Startup Daily)

• Tim Canham and Wik Farweck are launching a micro-cap fund under Balmoral Investors in partnership with Mantis Funds. (The Australian)

People moves

• Iluka names Macquarie veteran James Mactier as chair, lifting shares. (Capital Brief)

• David Gibson resigned from NZME's board following shareholder pressure after the company posted a $NZ16m loss. (The Australian)

• Bapcor’s management shake-up, including replacing Steve Drummy with Simon Bromell, failed to boost its share price. (The Australian)

• Justin Carroll was sacked from BlackBay Lawyers for serious misconduct, including anti-Semitic and sexist remarks. (The Australian)

The watercooler