Australia

• Prior to recent developments, Andrew Forrest held a 36.25% stake in Fortescue Metals (FMG AU).
• An ASIC shareholder disclosure into the giant iron-ore miner earlier this year fuelled speculation, culminating in an ASX notice Andrew was separating from his wife after 31 years of marriage. 
• A private statement assures there will be no impact on the control of FMG. But that won’t put a stop to the rumour mill.

• Imugene Ltd (IMU AU) got US patent for its oncolytic virotherapy CF33 products, including VAXINIA and CHECKVacc. The patent protects the method of composition and use of CF33 until 2037.
• Imugene has appointed two-decade experienced Dr Ron Weitzman as Interim Chief Medical Officer. Dr Weitzman’s expertise in solid-tumor and hematologic malignancies is of particular interest for Imugene.
• Imugene is actively recruiting patients for its five ongoing clinical trials. The company has a strong balance sheet holding more than A$150 million in cash, providing a runway through 2025.

• At the 20 April Scheme Meeting, Mineral Resources (MIN AU) (with 19.55%) and other shareholders voted against the Tianqi Lithium JV transaction for Essential Metals (ESS AU). 
• This left Essential in no man’s land until MinRes (presumably) made a move. But on the 3 July, Develop Global (DVP AU) announced a binding Scheme with ESS.
• The all-scrip Scheme transaction has the backing of MinRes, which also owns a ~13% stake in Develop. This deal – this time- looks all stitched up.

• Ventia (VNT AU) will replace Blackmores Ltd (BKL AU) in the S&P/ASX 200 (AS51 INDEX) at the close on 21 July.
• The ad hoc change will lead to changes in the list of potential adds and deletes at the regular scheduled rebalance in September.
• Weebit Nano Ltd (WBT AU) is now a potential add in September and could see some pre-positioning in the near future.

• After the Blackmores Ltd (BKL AU) Scheme Meeting result was announced earlier today, post-close the S&P/ASX team announced Ventia (VNT AU) would replace it on 21 July at the close.
• This is not that surprising. Janaghan Jeyakumar, CFA expected it in June, and it was a super-close second recently for him for the Sep rebalance. 
• Given the shareholder structure and flow dynamics, it’s worth taking a closer look.

• Whitehaven Coal (WHC AU) released its June Quarterly. The company is in blackout (starting July 1st) till its release of annual results on August 24th, 2023.
• June quarter OCF was 435 mn AUD ( Avg Coal Px 177 USD/ton), and net cash on the balance sheet was 2.65 bn AUD representing 45% of market capitalization.
• To complete its buyback program, 147 million shares remain left to repurchase (current o/s shares 836 mn). 196 million shares have been repurchased so far since March 2022.

Respiri has announced a three-year distribution and marketing agreement (non-exclusive) with Fi-Med Management, a US-based company providing healthcare support and management solutions to large healthcare organisations. Under this revenue-share arrangement, Respiri will receive $30 per patient per month for active patients enrolled as wheezo RPM users. Although the initial Fi-Med customer review suggests an immediate opportunity to address 5,000 patients, the collaboration is anticipated to enable Respiri to access a wider patient base. The development closely aligns with management’s strategic focus to expand into other indications and generate incremental top-line growth.

• In this insight, we take a look at the potential index changes for ASX 300, 200, 100, 50, and 20 in the run up to the September 2023 Rebalance.
• Blackmores Ltd (BKL AU) could get deleted from the index family, triggering intra-review changes in the next few days.
• Including the intra-review changes, ASX 300 could see 12 ADDs and 10 DELs, ASX 200 could see 4 changes, and ASX 100 could see one change between now and September.

• Busy week in India with the adhoc changes to the NIFTY, NSE Nifty Next 50, S&P BSE SENSEX and Nifty Bank due to the HDFC Limited and HDFC Bank merger.
• The IDX could announce the changes to the IDX30, LQ45 and IDX80 indices in the coming week, though there is no firm schedule for announcements.
• Yet another week of inflows to the Tracker Fund of Hong Kong Ltd (2800 HK) ETF and outflows from the Hang Seng H Share Index ETF (2828 HK). 

• Neuren Pharmaceuticals (NEU AU) announced the expansion of partnership with Acadia Pharmaceuticals for trofinetide. Acadia’s exclusive license for trofinetide in North America has been expanded to a worldwide exclusive license. 
• Neuren is now entitled for additional payments and will receive $100M up-front, plus additional potential milestone payments of upto $427M and royalties on net sales of trofinetide outside North America.
• Neuren has also granted Acadia an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize NNZ-2591 for Rett and Fragile X syndromes and retains worldwide rights to NNZ-2591 in all other indications.

• Kinatico Ltd (ASX:KYP) is a ‘Know Your People” regtech company providing workforce compliance monitoring and management technology and services.
• KYP has announced in a flash update that it expects to report FY23 NPAT greater than $0.2m, marking its first profitable full year since listing.
• This is ahead of our FY23 NPAT forecast of $0.14m. 

• The S&P/ASX 200 INDEX has been stuck in the 7000-7400 range for the past 16 weeks.
• If the index continues to be trendless for some more weeks, it’s possible to profit from repeatedly writing Covered Calls against ASX 200 index holdings.
• Strike target areas for Covered Calls begin in the 7319-7409 (July 20 expiry). Deeper OTM Strikes are safe,  but the premiums are smaller.