The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) fell by 0.8% today to 6,761 points.

There was another selloff in international markets, particularly with US tech shares. This caused a knock-on effect to the ASX share market.

Here are some of the main pieces of news:

Xero Limited (ASX: XRO)

The Xero share price ended the day lower by 2.6% despite announcing an acquisition that management were pleased with.

The ASX 200 tech company announced that it’s buying Planday for an upfront cost of €155.7 million, with 45% being paid in Xero shares and the rest in cash. Another €27.8 million could be paid based on product development and revenue milestones.

What does Planday do? It’s a leading workforce management platform with more than 350,000 employees across Europe and the UK that simplifies employee scheduling, allowing businesses to forecast and manage their labour costs. Its systems already integrate with Xero, other accounting solutions and third-party workforce-related apps, to deliver a real-time view of staffing needs and payroll costs, alongside key business performance metrics.

Xero said that when Planday’s technology is combined with an accounting solution, like Xero, it can provide insights to a business or its advisor that helps them to change employee levels to match the trading conditions and be in charge of labour costs.

The CEO of Xero, Steve Vamos, said:

The acquisition of Planday aligns with our purpose to make life better for people in small businesses and their advisors. Planday’s workforce management platform helps small businesses to respond to the rapidly changing nature of work. Planday also addresses the growing need for flexibility and rising and compliance demands within the workplace.

ARB Corporation Limited (ASX: ARB)

The ARB share price ended higher by around 3% after also announcing an acquisition.

ARB revealed it is purchasing Auto Styling Truckman Group Limited.

Truckman is the leading manufacturer and distributor of utility accessories in the UK, principally focused on rear of vehicle products as canopies, bed liners and general utility vehicle products.

The ASX 200 share said that the business is the leading brand leader in the UK. Management said that this business meets its aim of expanding international distribution and aligns with its evolving product strategy.

In a positive sign for employees, ARB said it would retain all existing staff and management. The business will continue to operate in the usual way with the added support of ARB’s expertise and resources. The chair and managing director, Michael Wheeler and Richard Langman, will continue to manage the business.

The maximum net cash purchase price is £21.9 million, including £10 million at completion, deferred payments of £4 million and a further amount of up to £7.9 million subject to performance hurdles over the next three years.

This purchase is being funded from its existing cash. It’s expected to operate profitably from the start of ARB’s ownership, effective 2 March 2021.

Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX: MYR)

The Myer share price fell by 11% today after reporting its FY21 half-year result.

Myer reported that its total sales dropped by 13.1% to $1.4 billion, however online sales climbed by 71% to $287.6 million.

The ASX retail share revealed that its operating gross profit dropped 14.3% to $539.8 million, whilst the cost of doing business decreased by 20.9% to $325.2 million.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped 1.7% to $214.6 million and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) went up 2.7% to $109 million.

Net profit after tax (NPAT) grew by 8.4%, which excludes implementation costs and individually significant items, to $42.9 million. Statutory net profit after tax grew 76.3% to $43 million.

Myer decided not to pay a dividend, though its net cash improved by $98.2 million to $201.1 million.

Tech shares sold off

There were a number of ASX tech shares that dropped today.

The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price fell 2%, the Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) share price fell 4.4%, the WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) share price dropped 2.2% and the Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price fell 3.1%.

Some of the smaller tech businesses also dropped, including the Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN) share price which dropped 1% and the Temple & Webster Group Ltd (ASX: TPW) share price which fell 2.6%.

More reading

• Is Altium’s (ASX:ALU) dividend growth star fading?
• Meet Sharesies, the ASX’s newest brokering app
• ANZ (ASX:ANZ) share price outperforms on broker “buy” upgrade
• Myer (ASX:MYR) share price plummets on first-half results release
• The ARB (ASX:ARB) share price moving up on $40 million acquisition

Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Appen Ltd, Kogan.com ltd, and ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO, WiseTech Global, and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended ARB Limited and Kogan.com ltd. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The BPH Energy Ltd (ASX: BPH) share price has had a dramatic day today. BPH shares started the day at 16 cents a share. But the BPH share price plummeted 36.36% to just 10 cents a share in afternoon trading before being placed in a trading halt.

This latest move gives back most of the gains BPH investors have enjoyed since the company rocketed from 5 cents a share to as high as 33 cents in late January.

So what on earth is going on with this ASX energy company?

Well, unfortunately, we don’t know too much yet, that’s certain. But here’s what we do know.

BPH share price in a trading halt

The BPH share price was having a fairly uneventful day, bobbing along at around 16 cents per share. Until midday, that was. BPH shares started dropping soon after noon, with the selling accelerating around 1pm. That’s when the BPH share price hit 10 cents. At 2.02pm, BPH announced to the ASX that trading would be paused pending a further announcement.

At 2.48pm, the company released another announcement. This one told investors that BPH had requested an immediate halt to all trading of shares and options “pending an announcement to be made by the company to respond to an ASX price and volume query”.

It went on to say the following:

The trading halt is necessary to assist the company in managing its continuous disclosure obligations as the company expects to make a material announcement to the market in relation to the stated purpose.

The company will continue to be suspended until 8 March, or when the company makes another statement. At the time of writing, that is all the information available.

What’s been happening lately?

BPH Energy shareholders have had a rollercoaster of a ride over the past few months. This is the second trading suspension the company has faced in the past month alone.

It was only back on 17 February that shares were last suspended. Back then, it was due to several reports that implied BPH’s proposal to use its PEP11 oil project in the Sydney basic to investigate the potential for a carbon, capture and storage project would be rejected by the New South Wales government.

In response, BPH released a statement that pointed out that the project would need to be blocked at the federal government level if it was to be derailed at all. And that’s the last we’ve officially heard on this interesting saga to date.

It’s possible that today’s moves are the result of news of further development in this story (even though that doesn’t appear to be public knowledge just yet). But, for now, we shall have to wait and see.

More reading

• Why did the BPH Energy (ASX:BPH) share price tank 24% today?
• Why BPH Energy (ASX:BPH) shares are now in a trading halt
• Why the BPH Energy (ASX:BPH) share price is crashing 21% lower today

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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You will hear terms such as ‘ex-dividend’ and ‘ex-dividend date’ quite frequently in the course of investing in ASX dividend shares. Shares will periodically be described as ‘going ex-dividend’, or perhaps blamed for a price drop using this excuse. So what is meant by this term, and what does it mean for your investing. Perhaps more importantly, is this fabled date something you can use to your advantage as an ASX dividend investor?

An ex no one wants to break up with

Let’s start from the start. A dividend is a payment that a company makes to its shareholders. In Australia, this is normally carried out every six months, although some companies pause or defer dividends for various reasons.

But how long do you have to own the shares to receive a dividend if the company pays one out? Well, that’s what the ‘ex-dividend date’ tells you. When a company announces a dividend, it will normally give investors 3 dates: an ex-dividend date, a record date, and a payment date. The ex-dividend date is the last day to buy the shares if you want to receive the dividend.

The following day is normally the record date, and that’s when the company will note who owns its shares and who will be receiving the payments. The payment date is when the dividends are officially dished out.

Can you trade the ex-dividend date?

The more entrepreneurial readers out there might be wondering if it’s possible to somehow jump into a share before the ex-dividend date, hop on the record, and then sell out after the dividend share goes ‘ex-dividend’. Good thinking. But unfortunately, this strategy rarely works, if ever. See, the market is fairly efficient with these things. All investors know when a particular ex-dividend date is for (usually) weeks before it occurs. As soon as the company goes ex-dividend, the market assumes that the cash that is about to be paid out has left the company forever (which is true). Thus, the company immediately becomes less valuable. And this is reflected in the said company’s share price with immediate effect.

Say a company with a share price of $20 tells investors it will pay out a dividend of $1 per share. You can reasonably expect that the first day after this company goes ex-dividend, it’s share price will open $1 lower at $19. Of course, this is by no means guaranteed. The market could be having an exceptional stong day and the share price actually rises. But most of the time, it will normally play out along this line. It’s certainly not some kind of loophole you can efficiently and repeatedly.

If you want a real-life example, just look at the Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX: PTM) share price this week. Platinum went ex-dividend on 1 March. On 2 March, Platinum shares opened 2.1% lower, which is almost exactly half of the company’s current dividend yield of 5.2%. Exactly what should logically happen.

As the famous saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. That extends to ASX dividend shares and ex-dividend dates too.

More reading

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• Why Limeade, Oil Search, Platinum, & Whispir shares are sinking
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• Platinum (ASX:PTM) share price on watch after strong profit growth

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Tasman Resources Ltd (ASX: TAS) share price surged an incredible 85.2% this morning before the company entered a trading halt around midday.

By the time the ASX approved Tasman’s request for a trading suspension, the Tasman share price was swapping hands for 10 cents each – up 4.6 cents on yesterday’s close. At one point today, its share price hit a 52-week high of 12 cents.

Tasman Resources Ltd is a Perth-based Australian exploration company focusing on exploration projects with the potential to deposit a wide range of precious and base metals, including gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, nickel, and uranium. Its projects are Lake Torrens Project, Pernatty Project, Parkinson Dam Epithermal Gold-Silver (Lead-Zinc) Project, and Vulcan prospect.

Let’s take a closer look.

Why is the Tasman share price rocketing?

In an announcement to the ASX this morning, Tasman Resources declared it had struck “massive” amounts of iron ore at its Lake Torrens site in South Australia.

The site exploration is in partnership with Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG). Fortescue drilled the holes at the site, located 30km north of BHP Group Ltd’s (ASX: BHP) Olympic Dam mine.

In one drilling spot, Tasman discovered rock comprising 70-100% iron ore near the surface. Deeper exploration led to the discovery of rock consisting of 40-70% iron ore.

At the second drill spot, the company advised it had again found “massive” iron ore amounts.

Trading Economics says iron ore is at its highest price in at least 5 years. As of writing, one tonne was selling in the commodities market for USD 175. In June 2016, the mineral was trading at around USD 50 a tonne – a 250% increase. Yet, many analysts are predicting the price of iron ore to fall for the foreseeable future.

Investors seem to believe Tasman has struck the proverbial gold mine.

Tasman share price snapshot

Tasman Resources share price has gone from strength to strength. This time last year, shares in the mining company were trading at a low of 2.1 cents each. That’s an eye-watering 400% increase over the period.

The company’s market capitalisation is $33 million.

More reading

• Macquarie Telecom (ASX:MAQ) share price slides on Optus deal
• CSL (ASX:CSL) share price is now down 12% in 2 weeks
• Argosy (ASX:AGY) share price backtracks despite positive update
• Is Altium’s (ASX:ALU) dividend growth star fading?
• Why the Red 5 (ASX:RED) share price is lifting 6% today

Motley Fool contributor Marc Sidarous has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Macquarie Telecom Group Ltd (ASX: MAQ) shares headed lower today following news the telecom service provider has signed a new deal with Optus. By the market’s close, the Macquarie Telecom share price had slumped 3.35% to $46.97. 

Let’s take a closer look at the company’s new agreement.

Macquarie Telecom just said ‘yes’

The Macquarie Telecom share price is sliding lower today after it was reported in The Australian today the company has ended its existing wholesale mobile contract with Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS), in favour of Optus. 

According to The Australian, Macquarie Telecom has signed an exclusive deal worth approximately $34 million “with Australia’s second-biggest telco to deploy mobile services including 5G to its 100,000 business customers”.

In addition to Optus’ 5G network, Macquarie will also gain access to other cellular services. Macquarie Telecom claims it wants to “expand its mobile business and hire more staff over the next three years.”

As reported by IT News, Macquarie Telecom group executive Luke Clifton said:

2020 changed the way Australians work forever.

By providing 5G connectivity along with business grade NBN, we can ensure Australian businesses can work from more places than ever before.

Optus was the clear choice in terms of superior technology, flexibility to build the right solutions, and cooperation. It is leading Australia’s wholesale 5G market, offers incredibly fast 5G and continues to invest heavily in its 5G network.

The company did not disclose how long the deal would be in effect, other than to say it was “multi-year”.

Aussie Broadband Ltd (ASX: ABB) also made the switch last month from the Telstra to Optus mobile network.

What does the company do?

Macquarie Telecom is a business-to-business endeavour operating through two segments, namely its telecom and hosting segments.

The telecom segment relates to the provision of voice and mobile telecommunications services and the provision of services utilising the Macquarie Telecom data network. The hosting segment is focused on providing services utilising the company’s data hosting facilities. Macquarie generates the majority of its revenue from the telecom segment.

Macquarie Telecom share price snapshot

Despite today’s losses, the Macquarie Telecom share price has been on an upward trajectory over the past twelve months. In the midst of the COVID-19 sell-off, Macquarie Telecom shares reached a 52-week low of $19.20.

If you had bought shares exactly one year ago, you would now be sitting on a healthy return of over 90%. However, year to date, the company’s shares have fallen by nearly 10%.

Based on the current share price, Macquarie Telecom has a market capitalisation of around $1 billion.

More reading

• 2 ASX dividend shares with generous yields
• ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: Friday carnage ruins last week of ASX earnings
• Macquarie Telecom (ASX:MAQ) share price on watch with more growth in HY21
• Why is the Telstra (ASX:TLS) share price falling today?
• ASX investors watch out for a rise in interest rates in 2022

Motley Fool contributor Marc Sidarous has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Aussie Broadband Limited. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Telstra Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Aussie Broadband Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL) share price seems to be stuck in the doldrums over the last couple of weeks. Shares in the biotherapeutics giant have been on the decline since the company announced its half-year results 2 weeks ago.

Interestingly, CSL reported a significant 45% increase in its net profit after tax. So why is the share price falling? As always, the devil is in the details.

Dividends cut in Aussie dollar terms

No, it’s not CSL picking favourites between the United States and Australia. Due to CSL’s operations being heavily focused in the US, most of the company’s financials are shown in US dollar terms. This causes fluctuations when interchanging between multiple currencies.

In this case, CSL declared a dividend increase of 9% to US$1.09 per share. However, the Australian dollar has strengthened by 17% compared to the USD in the last year. That means the Australian equivalent is actually less. In fact, CSL would have had to increase its dividend by more than 17% for it to increase on last year’s payout for Aussies.

Yesterday’s GDP figures indicate that the currency issue could worsen. Australia’s economy is rebounding strongly, backed up by the surprising 3.1% of GDP growth for the last quarter. The CSL share price also tumbled 1% yesterday.

The disappointing dividend for Australian shareholders is likely in focus today as CSL’s shares go ex-dividend. Meaning, if shareholders wanted to collect this dividend, but don’t want to stick around for the next one, today is the last day they had to wait around for.

CSL COVID-19 vaccine is a straggler

While Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) were provisionally approved earlier in the year, the AstraZeneca (LON: AZN) COVID-19 vaccine that CSL is set to manufacturer locally took a bit longer.

Furthermore, as reported by The Australian Financial Review, the AstraZeneca vaccine has lower efficacy than the Pfizer vaccine.

CSL resorted to an agreement for producing the AstraZeneca vaccine. This came after the company abandoned its own development attempts with the University of Queensland. This decision was made after participants gave false positive readings for HIV.

Foggy future weighs on CSL’s share price

Management warned that plasma collections had been impacted due to the challenging environment in its half results. As a result, CSL had experienced additional costs associated with collecting plasma.

Additionally, analysts at Goldman Sachs made the decision to downgrade CSL’s rating to a neutral. Analysts were concerned that management only reaffirmed guidance on the strong profit lift, instead of upgrading. This was interpreted by the analysts as potentially signalling headwinds for the company.

Accounting for today’s move, the CSL share price has now fallen by 16.5% in the last 12 months. 

More reading

• Why are these ASX 200 healthcare shares sinking today?
• 2 fantastic blue chip ASX 200 shares to buy
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Thursday
• Is it time to buy these 2 hot ASX healthcare shares?
• What you need to know about the CSL (ASX:CSL) dividend

Mitchell Lawler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of CSL Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Argosy Minerals Limited (ASX: AGY) share price is losing ground today. This comes despite the company updating the market with its expansion development plans for the Rincon Lithium Project.

During late afternoon trade, the lithium miner’s shares are down 4.5%, trading at 10.5 cents.

Argosy Minerals is a mining and exploration company with a 77.5% interest in the Rincon Lithium Project in Salta Province, Argentina. The company also operates the Tonopah Lithium Project in Nevada, USA.

What did Argosy announce?

The Argosy share price is in the red today regardless of its positive update to investors.

In its release, Argosy advised that it has conducted preliminary works to start drilling operations at the Rincon Project. The program will seek to increase the current Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) indicated mineral resource estimate conducted in 2018.

The company believes that there is between 262,000 tonnes to 479,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate underground. This is based on an average grade of 315 milligrams and 327 milligrams per litre, from 102.5 metres and 300 metres below the surface.

Argosy will diamond drill 6 holes to a depth of 300 metres and another drill hole up to 150 metres. Detailed geological logging will follow with the collection of samples sent to a laboratory for analysis.

Should the results yield an increased resource estimate, this could extend the project mine life and boost future production capacity.

Words from the managing director

Argosy managing director Jerko Zuvela commented:

We are excited with the increasing development activities occurring at the Rincon Lithium Project and look forward to an exciting near-term growth phase.

We expect the drilling results will outline the substantial upside that exists below the shallow- depth current JORC Indicated Mineral Resource estimate and provide further support for our planned 10,000tpa commercial scale development at Rincon.

Argosy share price review

Over the past 12 months, the Argosy share price has climbed almost 80%, with a 31% increase year-to-date. The company’s shares are performing relatively well in 2021 due to renewed investor confidence in the lithium market space.

Based on the current share price, Argosy commands a market capitalisation of more than $137 million.

More reading

• The Argosy (ASX:AGY) share price is racing 9% higher. Here’s why.
• Argosy (ASX:AGY) share price plummets 7% despite positive update
• Why the Argosy (ASX:AGY) share price is shooting 7% higher today
• Why Argosy Minerals, Sigma, Vocus, & Zip shares are charging higher

Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Rewind the clock a year, and ASX growth star Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) was the talk of the town. As one of the A’s in the exclusive WAAAX club of ASX growth shares, Altium could seemingly do no wrong. On Valentine’s Day 2020 (14 February for those less-romantically minded), Altium peaked at a share price of $41.82. That price represented a gain of more than 50% over the preceding 12 months and more than 600% since March 2016.

But it hasn’t been an easy ride for investors since. From 14 February 2020 until today, Altium shares have lost around 38% of their value. The current share price is $25.97 at the time of writing. In fact, you can buy Altium shares right now for not too dissimilar a price from where you could during the worst throes of the coronavirus market crash last year. That’s a similar price in turn to what you could have gotten back in August 2018. That’s a while ago now.

An ASX dividend growth star is born

But until 2020, one aspect of Altium’s success story remained in-tact — it’s status as a dividend growth star. Unlike fellow WAAAXers Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and Xero Limited (ASX: XRO), Altium pays a dividend and has done so uninterruptedly since October 2012.

In 2013, Altium’s dividend came in at an annual payout of 11 US cents per share. This was increased every year until 2020 when the company paid an interim dividend of 20 US cents per share, and a final dividend of 19 cents per share for a total of 39 US cents per share. That represents a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.82% over those 7 years, exactly what a dividend growth investor would like to see.

However, 2021 tells a different story. Altium reported its half-year earnings last month, and dividend growth investors would have got a shock. Altium announced an interim dividend of 19 US cents per share, which is a 5% drop on the previous year’s interim dividend of US 20 cents per share. Altium’s dividend growth streak has, sadly, come to an end.

If the shock of this move has died down for you, it’s worth remembering that Altium has never made any commitment to doling out ever-increasing dividends for its shareholders. Rather, it’s official dividend policy is to “aim to pay ordinary dividends each year within the range of 50-80% of net profit”.

In that same earnings report where Altium delivered the bad news, the company reported a net profit after tax of US$16.6 million, which was a 12% drop from the prior corresponding period. Since profits dropped, it makes total sense that the dividends would also drop under this policy.

Will Altium return to dividend growth?

Logically, for Altium to return to dividend growth, it’s profits must lead the way. Luckily for investors, the company’s management seems confident this will be the case. Altium CEO Aram Mirkazemi stated in the earnings report that, “I am confident of a much stronger second half. Early signs are positive for this”.

No doubt that any dividend growth investors who hold Altium shares are keeping their fingers crossed that Mr. Mirkazemi is right.

More reading

• Meet Sharesies, the ASX’s newest brokering app
• 2 stellar ASX tech shares to buy in March
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• Why are ASX tech shares like Afterpay (ASX:APT) so volatile?

Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. recommends Altium. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO, Altium, and Xero. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

The post Is Altium’s (ASX:ALU) dividend growth star fading? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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The Red 5 Ltd (ASX: RED) share price is on the move, up 6% in afternoon trading after earlier being up more than 11%.

This follows a company update on the ASX gold miner’s King of the Hills project.

What milestones did Red 5 report?

The Red 5 share price is lifting after the company reported it has cleared a key legislative hurdle and moved forward with an engineering contract at its King of the Hills gold mine in Western Australia.

On the legislative side, the company reported that the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety has approved its mining proposal for King of the Hills. This paves the way for Red 5 to recommence mining at the gold mine in 2022. The first gold production is forecast for the June 2022 quarter.

Red 5 also reported it has approved Phase 2 of its engineering, procurement & construction contract. Maca Ltd (ASX: MLD), Red 5’s engineering and construction contractor, is now expected to speed up the deployment of its crew over the next months. According to the company, the Phase 2 project is $10 million under budget.

The company said it was finalising the debt financing for King of the Hills with a Tier-1 banking syndicate. It expects that to be complete in the March 2021 quarter.

Commenting on the achievements, Red 5’s managing director Mark Williams said:

With all major mining approvals now in place and the debt funding process on track for completion this quarter, Red 5 has approved Phase 2 of the EPC contract. This will allow MACA Interquip to ramp-up the mobilisation of their construction teams over the coming months.

The manufacture and delivery to Australia of all key long-lead items for the plant is also well on track, which will help to ensure that key construction and installation milestones can be achieved once construction of the plant moves into full swing in the second half of this year.

Red 5 share price snapshot

It hasn’t been an easy 12 months for Red 5 shareholders, with shares down 42% since this time last year. In comparison, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is up 9% over that same time.

Year-to-date, the Red 5 share price is down 31%.

More reading

• Is Altium’s (ASX:ALU) dividend growth star fading?
• Cleanaway (ASX:CWY) share price swept up in >$2bn acquisition rumour
• Why the ResApp (ASX:RAP) share price is sinking 5% today
• Meet Sharesies, the ASX’s newest brokering app
• Why is everyone so bad at selling shares?

Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Cleanaway Waste Management Ltd (ASX: CWY) share price isn’t reacting much to rumours that it’s about to acquire its largest rival.

Shares in the waste management group dipped 1.3% to $2.21 in after lunch trade as the S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index:^AXJO) gave up a similar amount.

Investors don’t seem to be impressed with speculation that it is closing in on a deal to buy the Australian arm of France’s Suez SA (FRA: SZ1).

$2bn plus takeover spooks the Cleanaway share price

The Australian Financial Review quoted unnamed sources who claim that talks between the two parties were “advanced”.

If a takeover offer eventuates, Cleanaway may need to cough up something north of $2 billion.

Little wonder that shareholders are dumping their shares as Cleanaway will probably need to undertake a sizable capital raising to fund the acquisition.

High risk, high rewards

ASX shares tend to come under pressure at the slightest whiff of a cap raise. This is because companies usually have to sell new shares at a discount to the market to attract fresh capital.

But Cleanaway has another issue if this large acquisition goes through. It will need to bed down the new business without its chief executive Vik Bansal.

Swallowing a large acquisition is challenging even in the best of times. The task will be much more complicated without the captain at the helm.

Chairman Mark Chellew is taking over the reins from Bansal, but he is only the acting captain. Cleanaway is asking would-be capital raising investors to stomach a lot of risk, and they will be wary of the general fact that most acquisitions fail to deliver value.

Cleanaway enters ugly takeover battle front

If walking this tightrope isn’t precarious enough, Cleanaway may be entering into an ugly love/hate triangle.

Suez is fighting off a hostile €11.3 billion ($17.5 billion) takeover bid from fellow French rival Veolia Environnement SA (EPA: VIE). Veolia wants all of Suez, even its Aussie operations, and is threatening legal action to stop Suez from offloading assets.

Then there is the question of whether the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) would bless the marriage between Cleanaway and Suez Australia. The two are major players in the local market.

Foolish takeaway

The AFR reported that Cleanaway controls around 22.7% of Austraila’s waste treatment and disposal services market. Suez’s local arm is the next biggest with 18.3%, according to IBISWorld data.

But if Cleanaway can pull it off, its total revenue and earnings could jump by as much as 50%.

Talk about high stakes poker! Let’s hope Cleanaway shareholders will leave the party with more than the shirts on their back.

More reading

• Cleanaway (ASX:CWY) share price torn between record results and leadership uncertainty

Motley Fool contributor Brendon Lau has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Connect with me on Twitter @brenlau.

The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

The post Cleanaway (ASX:CWY) share price swept up in >$2bn acquisition rumour appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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