Sundance Resources Limited (SDL) announced the completion of the first tranche of its $85 million placement. The company said almost 1.3 million shares were issued today, taking the total amount received under the first tranche of the placement to $47.5 million. Sundance said the second tranche of the placement would be completed upon shareholder approval being obtained at an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on 9 December 2009. The company plans to use the proceeds of the placements to complete Definitive Feasibility Study of the Mbalam Project, to undertake drilling to define further High Grade mineralisation with a view to achieving up to 10 years of DSO-quality production and provide general working capital.

Uran Limited (URA) said exploration permits have been granted to allow drilling to commence at the Armijo and the F33 projects in Grants Ridge. The uranium explorer said aircore drilling at Armijo would commence this week, while reverse circulation drilling at F33 would commence in December or January.

IMX Resources Limited (IXR) said a shipping licence has been granted for the export of Cairn Hill magnetite ore through Port Adelaide. The minerals explorer said the grant means that all approvals and licences required for the mining and export of Cairn Hill ore have now been obtained. IMX said Phase I of the Cairn Hill magnetite – copper – gold development would involve direct shipment of ore to China, with first shipment of iron ore to potentially occur within four months of completion of appropriate financing. The company said its aim is to complete financing arrangements by the end of this year.

Tiger Resources Limited (TGS) said it has completed the acquisition of the outstanding 15% interest in Tiger Congo sprl from Groupe Orgaman for US$3 million. The copper focused miner said the acquisition is a significant step forward in consolidating the company’s interest in the Kipoi Project and simplifying the ownership structure. The final payment required in order to complete the Tiger Resources’ acquisition of its interest in the Kipoi Project is the payment of US$12 million to the project vendors by May 2010.

Neptune Marine Services Limited (NMS) announced that it has completed the acquisition of Aberdeen based Submersible Technology Services (Holdings) Limited (“STS”). Neptune said it acquired 100% of the issued capital of the provider of remotely operated vehicle and survey support services to the offshore oil and gas industry for about $29.1 million with added conditional consideration based on STS’s EBITDA performance for the calendar year 2009.

WorleyParson Limited's (WOR) Worley Parsons Canada Ltd said that its construction services division, Cord WorleyParsons Ltd, had been awarded a C$74.4 million ($76 million) contract by Canadian energy and oil sands company, Suncor Energy. The contract is for the construction of the Firebag 3 well pads near Fort McMurray in Alberta and is due for completion in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Redflex Holdings Limited (RDF) said that it had been awarded, as a part of a consortium, a $100 million contract to supply cameras and maintenance to the Irish government for the next five years. Redflex has a $16% stake in the contract winning GoSafe Consortium, with Irish company Spectra and French company EGIS Projects SA. Redflex will provide state of the art Image and Infringement Processing System, the company said.

Commonwealth Property Office Fund (CPA) requested an immediate trading halt on its shares be granted pending the announcement of a transaction. The company requested that the trading halt remain in operation until the commencement of normal trading on Wednesday, 25 November by which time it expects to have been able to make an announcement which would enable the trading halt to be lifted.

Cell Aquaculture Limited (CAQ) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with an unnamed Malaysian based global multinational organisation, with turnover in excess of  $5 billion per annum. The company said the agreement would see Cell Aquaculture commence detailed feasibility, with a view to establishing large scale land based aquaculture production, utilising CAQ’s unique Cell production technologies and vertically integrated  ‘Hatch to Dispatch’ business model. 

CBD Energy Limited (CBD) announced the acquisition of eco-Kinetics Pty Limited or $13 million. CBD said it has signed a Heads of Agreement for the acquisition, which is subject to financing, due diligence and documentation. The company said eco-Kinetics is a provider of engineering design, supply and installation services to the renewable and sustainable energy markets. CBD said eco-Kinetics is profitable and forecasts to earn in excess of $40 million of revenue for FY10. As a result, CBD expects to be profitable in the second half of FY10.

RBS – Round Up – 231109

James Hardie Industries N.V. (JHX) reported a net loss for the six months to 30 September of US$97.5 million, down from a US$154.9 million profit for the previous corresponding period. Looking ahead James Hardie said that there were signs of a recovery in the US and Australian housing construction markets and that for the full year to 30 March 2010 the company would post a profit towards the upper end of analyst estimates of between US$77 million and US$115 million.

”Management cautions that market conditions remain uncertain and the upcoming northern hemisphere winter is expected to be a very challenging period for the company to generate significant operating earnings,” the company said.

Turning to the results for the current half year, before the inclusion of costs associated with asbestos, ASIC expenses and tax adjustments the materials producer reported a US$79.2 million profit for the half year, up 4%.

The company noted unfavourable asbestos adjustments of US$182.5 million for the half-year, a result of the appreciation of the Aussie dollar.

Economic conditions continue to pose challenges for James Hardie in the US, the company noted, with housing starts down 15% for the September quarter from the previous quarter, while off 74% from the 2.265 million housing starts at its peak in September 2006.

CEO, Louis Gries, said the US residential construction market remains at near historical low levels.

“In this low-demand environment, the business continues to perform well financially and has stayed on strategy with product leadership initiatives,” Mr Gries added.

The company said it would continue to make contributions to the Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund (AICF), which it was unable to make this year as a result of the downturn in the earnings for the company.

The Federal Government lent James Hardie $160 million in November to maintain contributions to the AICF.

At the close Friday, James Hardie shares were trading at $7.40.

Rio Tinto Limited (RIO) said it would receive at least US$741 million in connection with Cloud Peak Energy Inc’s initial public offering and related transactions. The mining giant said the proceeds include at least US$434 million from the sale of part of Rio Tinto’s interest in Cloud Peak Energy Resources LLC (CPER) in connection with Cloud Peak Energy Inc’s initial public offering (IPO) of common stock and a cash distribution by CPER of US$307 million from the proceeds of its debt offering of US$600 million.

Rio Tinto said it expects to retain an interest in CPER of up to 48%.

CEO, Guy Elliott, said it proved the IPO route was the best option for divesting the assets.

“Including the sale of Jacobs Ranch, we will realise proceeds of at least US$1.5 billion before tax for assets that were previously part of Rio Tinto Energy America, while retaining a substantial interest in Cloud Peak Energy Resources LLC,” Mr Elliott said.

The company said it has announced asset sales of US$8.3 billion since February 2008. Additionally, Rio Tinto received a binding offer from Amcor in August 2009 of US$2.025 billion for Alcan Packaging global pharmaceuticals, global tobacco, food Europe and food Asia divisions.

At the close of trade Friday, Rio Tinto shares were trading at $71.22.

Wall Street weakened Friday on economic recovery concerns and ahead of the release of 15 economic reports and data in the first three days of the coming week. Tech stocks continued to be pressured by a bearish outlook on the semiconductor industry by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

US markets will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving.

The Dow Jones shed 14.28 points, or 0.14%, to 10,318.16, the S&P 500 lost 3.52 points, or 0.32%, to 1,091.38 and the NASDAQ fell 10.78 points, or 0.50%, to 2,146.04.

Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo both dropped 1.6% on a disappointing day for the banks. Citigroup fell 1.4%.

Dell slumped 10% after the PC maker posted weaker than anticipated results after the close Thursday.

Hewlett-Packard added 0.4% ahead of the release of its quarterly results after the close today.

Microsoft, Google and IBM all lost 0.5%. Yahoo! shed 1.5%.

Homebuilding stocks struggled after D.R. Horton reported a larger than expected loss for the quarter ended September 30. The company’s shares sank 15.4%.

Pulte Homes and Lennar fell 3.7% and 3.5%. 

Clothing and accessories retailer The Gap put on 0.4% after reporting a 25% jump in quarterly profit.

Larger retailers Wal-Mart and Target weakened 0.5% and 0.9%.

Energy majors Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips were between 0.4% and 0.9% lower.

NYMEX light crude oil for December delivery weakened US$74c to settle at US$76.72 a barrel.

COMEX gold for December delivery rose US$4.90 to a record close of US$1,146.80 per ounce. 

European Markets

European stocks fell resulting in the first weekly slide since October. Concerns heightened that the rally in equity markets has outpaced earnings growth.

The UK benchmark FTSE 100 lost 16.29 points, or 0.31% to 5,251.41. The French CAC40 fell 30.86 points, or 0.82% to 3,729.36, while the German DAX shed 39.03 points, or 0.68% to 5,663.15.

Financials lost ground on concerns of certain banks’ exposure to Ukrainian debt. Lloyds and Barclays lost 2% and 1.4%, while in Germany Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank dropped 3.7% and 2.7%.

Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas fell 2.7%, 2.4% and 1.2% respectively.

Energy stocks tracked the price of crude lower. Total and Royal Dutch Shell shed 1.4% and 1%.

Aussie miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton slid 1.1% and 1%. Antofagasta gained 1.2%.

Pharmaceuticals GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Sanofi-Aventis put on 1.1%, 0.3% and 0.1% as defensive stocks were in favour.

Cadbury advanced 1.5% on reports Ferrero may be interested in acquiring its gum and candy division.

Food producers Danone and Unilever added 1.6% and 0.7%.

Japanese Markets

Japan’s Nikkei finished lower for the fourth consecutive week for the first time in over a year. A strengthening yen negatively impacted exporters.

The Nikkei 225 shed 51.79, or 0.54% to 9,497.68.

Sony lost 2.4% on concerns related to the company’s new growth strategy. Panasonic added 1.5%.

Advantest Corp followed its US chip making peers lower to be down 2.9%. Tokyo Electron and Nikon dropped 3% and 2.8%. 

Automakers Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi fell 1.4%, 3.2% and 0.3% respectively.

Financials regained some of the ground lost recently. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group rose 1.1%, 3.5% and 1.9% respectively. 

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings surged 9.2% on the back of two broker upgrades.

Hong Kong Markets

Stocks retreated for the fourth straight day, the longest losing streak in a couple of months. The banks lost ground on reports the central government could raise deposit reserve requirements.

The Hang Seng lost 187.32, or 0.83% to 22,455.84.

Bank of China dipped 0.2%, while Bank of Communications shed 1.5%.

Heavyweight lender ICBC lost 1.2%. HSBC fell 0.5%.

Chinalco was off 2.3% following the prospect of higher power costs.

Cathay Pacific dropped 1.9%. Yield, or revenue from ticket prices, has fallen by about 20% it was reported.

Chinese PC maker, Lenovo, slumped 5.3% after US based Dell Computers missed earnings estimates.

Meanwhile electric carmaker, BYD Co., climbed 4.9% after losses came in less than expected.

No Director changes today.

Substantial Shareholder Changes 
20 November 09

All movements are percentage changes

*Instructions held under institutional acceptance facility.