James Hardie cuts hundreds of jobs, ACCC blocks TPG and Telstra deal and Liontown enters agreement with Zenith Energy

Global building materials company James Hardie Industries (ASX: JHX) has revealed it is slashing hundreds of jobs across the globe and making workers redundant before Christmas as the giant deals with falling demand and soaring costs.

The company confirmed it will cut around 100 jobs within the Asia Pacific region, mostly Australia, as it hands down redundancy notices to employees this week.

One James Hardie spokesperson said the Asia Pacific region wasn’t the only affected area.

“As we discussed on our second quarter results call, we are expecting all three regions we operate in, North America, Asia Pacific and Europe, to experience housing market slowdowns in calendar 2023,” they said.

“As such, we have taken the difficult decision to adjust our cost base to better align with market conditions.”

In the issued redundancy letters to employees in Australia, James Hardie cited the need for a business restructure and “headcount reductions” to control future costs.

This comes as new leader and chief executive officer Aaron Erter vies to restructure the company and prepare for tougher times ahead.

The company expects a cyclical downturn in 2023 steered by “macroeconomic uncertainty, aggressive inflation growth and rapidly rising interest rates”.

James Hardie Industries produces fibre cement that is used to clad homes and employs around 4,800 people globally.

TPG Telecom

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has blocked an asset transfer deal between telco giants TPG Telecom (ASX: TPG) and Telstra (ASX: TLS), with the giants now preparing to appeal the decision handed down by the competition watchdog.

ACCC blocked the deal between the nation’s number one and number three ranked wireless internet companies amid competition concerns, putting the $1.8 billion deal affecting 4 million customers on hold.

The deal struck between the parties would have leveraged Telstra’s already dominant market position and discourage innovation and investment by competitors.

However, ACCC’s move pleases rival Optus, which argued the deal would ruin its already marginal investment case for mobile infrastructure in the regions.

TPG Telecom chief executive officer Inaki Berroetta said the provider will be appealing the case, as the decision is a “missed opportunity to deliver greater competition and choice for the people of regional Australia”.

“The ACCC has chosen to ignore the overwhelming evidence submitted from leading economists, competition experts and regional communities outlining the benefits of the proposed arrangement to competition and consumer choice,” he said.

“If it had been authorised, the arrangement would have freed regional Australia from its current mobile duopoly, and the increased competition from TPG would have placed downward pressure on mobile pricing.”

TPG has had success in court with ACCC’s dealing before, after succeeding in overturning the watchdog’s decision to block its merger with Vodafone in the federal court back in 2020.

Johns Lyng Group

Johns Lyng Group’s (ASX: JLG) shares have plummeted this week after the company confirmed chief operating officer and executive director Lindsay Barber completed the sale of 4 million company shares, making up around 31% of his holding prior to the sale.

The company said the sale, worth around $27.2 million, aimed to diversify Mr Barber’s personal asset portfolio.

“Mr Barber has informed the company that he has no intention of selling more shares within the next 12 months,” it stated.

Mr Barber still plans to retain 8.87 million shares which “continues to reflect the major proportion of his personal wealth and investments.”

Also, the company confirmed that Mr Barber “remains committed to his role as chief operating officer and executive director of the company.”

As for business, the Australia-based integrated building services company continues to perform strongly, with its current earnings guidance for FY23 including sales revenue of $1.03 billion, a 27.4% increase on FY22.

Medibank Private

Australian leading private health insurance provider Medibank Private (ASX: MPL) has announced it will hand out a further $207 million in COVID-19 claims savings to its customers, bringing the insurers total support package to $950 million since the start of the pandemic.

Customers will receive up to $151 for those with extras-only policies and up to $667 for customers with hospital and extras policies.

Medibank group executive of customer portfolios Milosh Milisavljevic said the company will stick by its commitment to “not profit from the pandemic”.

“While nearly all public health measures implemented during COVID-19 have eased and claims are recovering, they still remain below normal levels,” he said.

“This is why we’re returning those savings to our customers.”

“We know a lot of people are doing it tough at the moment with rising cost of living expenses, so we hope that this provides our customers with some financial relief,” Mr Milisavljevic added.

Medibank has told customers they can expect to receive their cash automatically by the end of May 2023.

Liontown Resources

Liontown Resources (ASX: LTR) has announced it entered into a power purchase agreement with Zenith Energy for the supply of power to the Kathleen Valley lithium project in Western Australia for 15 years.

Both parties agreed to the deal back in September, where Zenith will finance, design, construct and operate the 95-megawatt hybrid power station at Kathleen Valley from the first half of 2024.

Zenith already commenced planning, legal, engineering and design works in line with the project schedule.

Liontown managing director and chief executive officer Tony Ottaviano said reaching the agreement is a key milestone for the company.

“This reflects our unwavering commitment to delivering on our ESG credentials and establishing industry-leading carbon emissions from the outset,” he said.

“Zenith Energy’s commitment to deliver a high-capacity hybrid power solution includes incentives to produce renewable power over thermal power and, together with a renewable energy guarantee, sets us up to meet our renewable energy target of 60% at start-up.”

The hybrid power station will become one of the largest off-grid wind/solar/battery storage facilities of its kind in Australia, and will include wind generation from five wind turbines each capable of generating 6MW.