The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) fell 0.8% today to 5,876 points.
Here are some of the main highlights from the ASX 200:
Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)
The Afterpay share price fell around 6% today after the buy now, pay later company announced that its chief financial officer (CFO), Luke Bortoli, would be leaving.
Afterpay said that Mr Bortoli has played a critical role in delivering the significant growth and success of the business of that period. He transformed the finance function of the company from a small cap start-up to a global market leader.
The ASX 200 share said that following discussions with Mr Bortoli regarding his future ambitions, the company went looking globally for a replacement. Rebecca Lowde will assume the role of CFO effective 6 October 2020.
Rebecca Lowde has been the CEO and CFO of Salmat for a combined six years and she was also the CFO of fintech business Bravura Solutions Ltd (ASX: BVS).
Afterpay CEO and managing director Anthony Eisen said: "Luke has made a transformational contribution to Afterpay in its highly crucial years. He has built a world class finance function that has grown from a small number of employees based in Australia to a high performing team operating across multiple regions and functions.
"Luke has worked tirelessly as a partner to the executive leadership team and been integral in driving our strong performance trajectory and expansion into new regions, while ensuring we had the right capital structure and investor base to achieve our strategic objectives."
The ASX 200 share also announced that it has appointed Meahan Callaghan as chief people officer and Mark Teperson as chief strategy officer.
Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co. Ltd (ASX: SOL) FY20 result
The Soul Patts report was covered here. The Soul Patts share price rose around 1% today in reaction to the result.
There were a number of interesting pieces in the report from the ASX 200 share.
Regular profit after tax was down 44.7% because of lower coal prices and lower demand with New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX: NHC) and COVID-19 impacts on construction with Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW).
Statutory profit after tax increased by 284.3% to $953 million largely due to the accounting profit from the merger involving TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPG).
The net cash flows from investments of the ASX 200 share increased by 48.8% to $252.3 million thanks to the special dividend declared and paid by TPG.
Soul Patts' net asset value (pre-tax) decreased by 5.3% to $5.2 billion. The net asset value decline of 5.3% was 6.9% better than the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) decline of 12.2% over the year to 31 July 2020.
The Soul Patts directors decided to declare a final dividend of 35 cents per share, which was an increase of 2.9% compared to last year's final dividend. That brought the total dividend for FY20 up to 60 cents per share – an increase of 3.4%.
Brickworks
Brickworks also announced its FY20 result today. The Brickworks share price fell 1%.
The Australian building products company said that its continuing revenue rose 4% to $953 million.
However, the ASX 200 share's underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 19% to $281 million, underlying earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) dropped 34% to $206 million and underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) declined 38% to $146 million. Underlying earnings per share (EPS) fell 38% to 98 cents.
Profit was impacted by COVID-19 and was down from a record result last year.
However, statutory profit rose 93% to $299 million thanks to its investment in Soul Patts which benefited from the TPG merger. Brickworks also benefited from positive property revaluations with lower interest rates.
The Brickworks board decided to increased the final dividend by 3% to 39 cents per share. The full year dividend was increased by 4% to 59 cents per share.
The ASX 200 share said that the building products Australia division has seen rising orders and sales in September which reflected the various government stimulus measures.
