Daily Roundup

Commonwealth Bank of Australia delivered strong September quarter results, posting an unaudited statutory net profit after tax of approximately $2.8 billion. Operating income climbed 3% thanks to lending and deposit volume growth, while the underlying net interest margin held steady. The bank set aside $300 million for loan impairments, maintaining sound credit quality despite cost-of-living pressures weighing on customers. Operating expenses rose 3%, driven by wage inflation, IT vendor costs, and higher cloud computing volumes. CBA's balance sheet remains robust, with capital, funding, and liquidity ratios sitting comfortably above regulatory minimums.

In regulatory filings, CBA's Common Equity Tier 1 ratio ticked up to 11.5%, while total risk-weighted assets increased by $9.0 billion to $531.4 billion. The bank's leverage ratio held at 4.4%, and both liquidity coverage and net stable funding ratios remained stable at 132% and 115% respectively.

Flight Centre Travel Group wrapped up a bumper year, reporting record total travel volume of $25.7 billion in FY26 despite geopolitical headwinds in the Middle East. Net profit surged 38% to $149 million, with earnings per share jumping 43% to 71 cents. The company returned $87 million to shareholders through dividends and a completed $400 million share buyback program. Looking ahead, Flight Centre guided for FY27 underlying profit before tax between $290 million and $325 million, with results expected to skew toward the second half. The leisure segment is showing encouraging recovery in early FY27, while corporate trends remain consistent with the prior quarter. The company is investing heavily in artificial intelligence and digital transformation to drive future growth.

PEXA Group faced headwinds in the first quarter, with transaction volumes declining 11.5% year-on-year as property market conditions tightened. Despite the slowdown, Australian customer satisfaction held firm at around 90%, and the company maintained its 90% market penetration. The UK remortgage business is gaining traction, with faster transaction speeds and improved customer satisfaction on PEXA's platform. Looking to FY27, the company guided for group revenue between $355 million and $380 million with EBITDA margins of 29.0% to 31.5%. However, regulatory uncertainty looms large—IPART's proposed 20% reduction in regulated revenue could force the company to scale back innovation investments if implemented. PEXA expects to process its first sale and purchase transaction with NatWest in March 2027.

New Hope Corporation is tapping capital markets with a proposed offer of subordinated, perpetual, redeemable hybrid securities. The securities are expected to carry fully franked floating rate distributions. Jarden Australia will serve as arranger and joint lead manager, with the offer subject to market conditions and a prospectus to be lodged with ASIC. The securities will only be available to Australian residents.

DXN Ltd, the modular data centre specialist, landed a A$4.8 million contract for a cable landing station from a leading global internet company. This marks the fourth such contract for DXN and underscores growing confidence in the company's ability to deliver mission-critical infrastructure. The standardized solution is slated for delivery in the first quarter of FY28, leveraging DXN's prefabricated modular approach for efficiency and reliability.