Welcome to Friday. Here are the five things I'm looking at today on the Australian sharemarket.
- The S&P/ ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) is roughly flat – maybe its exhaustion after the intense last four weeks of company reporting. Good thing it's the weekend, so we can all come back on Monday refreshed.
- National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) has announced that it is selling off its US business Great Western Bank, in a deal that could be worth as much as $2 billion to the bank. NAB shares have jumped more than 1% in lunchtime trading as a result.Analysts have suggested the move means new CEO Andrew Thorburn has signalled his intent to deal with legacy offshore assets. Shareholders will be hoping NAB manages to find a buyer for its UK assets including Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks.
- Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd (ASX: VAH) boss John Borghetti has upstaged his larger counterpart Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) after announcing that the airline is selling off 35% of its Velocity frequent flyer program to Affinity Equity Partners. Qantas has spent several months looking at a similar option for its own program, before giving up and deciding to keep 100% of it in house.
Virgin says the deal values its Velocity business at $960 million, and will increase its cash balance by $336 million.
The airline's shares were up 1.2% at 41 cents. - Tweet of the Day
Google has been testing #drones … in Queensland https://t.co/vFhZWqWNPL
SmartCompany (@SmartCompany) August 29, 2014
"Look out above!" - Stock of the Day – brought to you by Tim McArthur – Retail Food Group Limited (ASX: RFG).
Australia's franchise king now has 1,417 outlets under various brands, and is acquiring two more franchises. You can read more here.
