Telix withdraws Europe marketing application, AGL to close power station early and BHP prioritises Peru exploration

Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX: TLX) has announced it has withdrawn its application to market the company’s lead prostate cancer imaging product, Illuccix, in Europe.

The Danish Medicines Agency asked for additional chemistry, manufacturing and control data from Telix, but the Australian company said the requests could not be delivered within the prescribed review timeframe.

Telix group chief executive officer and managing director Dr Christian Behrenbruch said the outcome was disappointing and unexpected.

“This is not the outcome we expected, despite our best efforts to meet all regulator information requests,” he said.

“The outcome is reflective of the novelty of our submission approach and the specific nuances of European product approval requirements .”

Telix plans to resubmit its bid to market the product in Europe some time in the future.

Also in the news this week, Telix confirmed the Chinese National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) Centre for Drug Evaluation (CDE) approved a phase three registration study that will bridge to Telix’s global phase three ZIRCON trial of TLX250-CDx.

The trial will enrol 100 renal cancer patients to test the company’s product.

TLX250-CDx is being developed by Telix to detect clear cell renal cancer in patients with indeterminate renal masses (IDRMs).

AGL Energy

AGL Energy (ASX: AGL) has announced it has moved the date for the closure of the Loy Yang A power station 10 years ahead of schedule.

Originally expected to close by 2048 before being shortened to between 2040 and 2045, the energy giant has now revealed aims to shut down the station by 2035.

The Loy Yang A facility is Victoria’s largest power station, and one of its newest, producing around 30% of the state’s electricity.

AGL’s newly appointed interim chief executive officer Damien Nicks said the decision to close the station is “a major step forward in Australia’s decarbonisation journey”.

“The targeted earlier closure of Loy Yang A power station will avoid up to 200 million tonnes of greenhouse gases being emitted, compared to the previous Loy Yang A power station closure date,” he said.

“AGL’s future portfolio will be ‘demand driven’, meaning we will focus on capacity that responds to what our customers need — with the majority of new supply anticipated to be from wind and storage, including batteries.”

The statement also said the company remains on track to close its Bayswater coal plant in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley between 2030 and 2033.

Premier Investments

Australian retail group Premier Investments (ASX: PMV) stocks are up considerably this week after it posted record sales from its pyjama retailer Peter Alexander and womens fashion chain Portmans.

The Solomon Lew-led group has delivered a record sales result for the year thus far, offering a special dividend for shareholders of $0.25 per share and flagged an on-market share buyback of up to $50 million.

The group, which includes seven brands —Peter Alexander, Smiggle, Dotti, Just Jeans, Jay Jays, Portmans and Jacqui E – recorded sales totalling $1.497 billion, up 5.2% for the year end July 30.

Premier Investments believe its record results were achieved through a jump in second half sales of 10.5% after a slow start to the year due to lockdowns.

The company urged it is in a strong position leading into an upcoming busy period.

“The strong start to 1H23 and clean inventory position has given the group confidence that it is well positioned to drive sales through the critical Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Boxing Day Sales and ‘Back to School’ trading periods ahead,” it said.

BHP Group

Global miner BHP Group (ASX: BHP) has confirmed its plans to expand the group’s presence in Peru through the exploration of new projects.

The company’s president of minerals Americas Rag Udd uncovered the plans at the Perumin mining conference.

Mr Udd noted BHP will invest US$12 million (A$18.5 million) on exploration in the next 10 months evaluating six potential projects in Peru, the world’s second largest copper producer. BHP is a part owner of Antamina, one of the nation’s largest copper mines.

Although prices have dropped off in recent months, Mr Udd remains optimistic the demand for copper will rejuvenate with the push for a move away from fossil fuels.

“Peru has all the potential to grasp that opportunity and unleash a new positive cycle,” he said.

Commonwealth Bank

The Federal Court has dismissed the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) claim that Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA) had wronged its customers who had signed up to one of its superannuation products between 2013 and 2019.

The bank signed up more than 390,000 individuals to the Essential Super product between that period.

Federal Court Justice Stewart Anderson said the corporate regulator put ‘form’ ahead of ‘substance’ to prove its case which came about after the banking royal commission which concluded in 2019.

Mr Anderson said ASIC didn’t establish that the CBA had received ‘conflicted remuneration’ from its former subsidiary Colonial First State after it signed up customers to the product.

“I found that ASIC has failed to establish that the impugned benefits were conflicted remuneration within the section of 963A of the Corporations Act,” he said.

The court has dismissed the case against the bank and ordered ASIC to pay its costs.

CBA threw out its 55% stake in Colonial First State to private equity group KKR in 2021 following the royal commission.

As a result, Essential Super was no longer available to new customers at CBA.