Malcolm Maiden
Malcolm Maiden analyses and comments on business, the markets and the economy.
Malcolm Maiden
Covenant-light lending making its presence felt again
Malcolm Maiden Competition is feral at the institutional end of the fierce banking industry.
Telecoms
Steady as it goes for Thodey as he makes the judgment calls
Malcolm Maiden The Telstra CEO has helped to boost the share price since he took the reins, but he's not ready to rest on his laurels.
Malcolm Maiden
Caution surrounds comeback of covenant-light
Malcolm Maiden Competition is feral at the institutional end of the banking industry and in the big banks a recent development has everyone talking: covenant-light lending appears to be making a comeback.
Malcolm Maiden
Trust British banks? NAB sure can't
Malcolm Maiden NAB is a good Australian banking business with a very ordinary British banking business attached.
Malcolm Maiden
NAB shines light on banking sweet spot
Malcolm Maiden Banks continue to be a curious sweet spot. Only a collapse in economic activity threatens them. And while that is not impossible as the resources investment boom ends, it is improbable.
Malcolm Maiden
Even with low rates, RBA signals more falls could come
Malcolm Maiden The Reserve Bank had been signalling since it's last cut that it had room to go even lower.
Malcolm Maiden
RBA hints at more rate cuts to come
Malcolm Maiden This was a close call for the Reserve Bank, but it still signals that rates could fall even further.
Malcom Maiden
Banks' soaring success becomes a pressure point
Malcolm Maiden A split between the margins Westpac is getting on its high-end institutional banking business and the ones it is getting on business and home lending suggests that pressure on the banks to cut...
Malcolm Maiden
Time nears for banks to cut rates
Malcolm Maiden As they post another round of bumper profits, the banks can no longer argue that they need to retain some part of any future rate cut.
Malcolm Maiden
All that sparkles for Rio's diamonds
Malcolm Maiden The diamond industry that Rio Tinto is looking to sell out of has a lot in common with the gold industry.
Farm profits depart as locals sit on sidelines
Malcolm Maiden The wave of foreign takeovers of local grain groups is arguably a result of overregulation.
Malcolm Maiden
Suddenly, boring banks are exciting
Malcolm Maiden As the '90s became the noughties the glowing white Apple became a sine qua non for the cool crowd.
Malcolm Maiden
Suddenly, boring banks are exciting
Malcolm Maiden Investors who bought the boring old banks have been the cool ones more recently.
All right, with something in reserve
Malcolm Maiden The consumer price index results are a sign that Australia is still getting some things right.
Malcolm Maiden
Virgin grab a nightmare scenario for Qantas
Malcolm Maiden When Singapore airlines took 10 per cent of Virgin Australia last year eyebrows were raised.
Malcolm Maiden
Woodside slows up, then pays up
Malcolm Maiden Chalk up a win for the bottom-up investing crowd. Woodside's announcement on Tuesday that it would pay a special dividend and significantly boost its payout ratio was a victory for them, and a miss...
Malcolm Maiden
The stats that matter: China and the US
Malcolm Maiden Some concerns about China's growth are valid, while worries about America's growth are overblown.
Malcolm Maiden
BHP's focus tightens with shake-up
Malcolm Maiden Andrew Mackenzie is flattening BHP's management to tighten the focus on five large businesses.
Malcolm Maiden
Sweeping changes at BHP
Malcolm Maiden Andrew Mackenzie has flattened and simplified BHP's management at the top, as part of his "laser-like focus" to boost profitability.
Malcom Maiden
Carbon trading scheme facing strife
Malcolm Maiden The collapse of Europe's latest attempt to breathe life into its carbon trading scheme is a hammer-blow for proponents of a global trading system.
